News & Events
Parish Visit to St Mary's College, Oscott
On Sunday 16th September the parish visiting St Mary’s College, Oscott. This is the seminary that Fr Adrian Wilcock attended over 30 years ago. We were welcomed at the main door by the students and taken to the college refectory where tea and cakes were served. After tea we were shown a short video on the history of the college and then given a guided tour of the main public area. During the day we had time to meet with the students from various years and hear something about their lives there. At present there are 70 students at Oscott. We were also given the opportunity to explore the college museum and chapel. The visit concluded with Evening prayer in the chapel with the college community led by the Archbishop of Birmingham, Archbishop Bernard Longley.
It was a truly wonderful and deeply uplifting experience for us all and we hope to visit the college again some time in the future.
(Photographs of the College or students are not allowed to be used on the website)
St Mary’s College, Oscott, near Birmingham has been training Catholic priests to serve the community in this country for over 200 years. The College opened in 1794 with a small group of schoolboys and three seminary students. Francis Martyn was ordained in 1805 and was the first priest wholly trained in England since the Reformation. From then until the present day it has trained priests for the Archdiocese of Birmingham and many other English and Welsh dioceses. As the college expanded and Catholic life in England emerged from the penal times the new college was built on this site. This ambitious project the first major Catholic building in England since the Reformation was the brainchild of the Vicar Apostolic, Thomas Walsh, who built the college as a symbol of the renewal of Catholic Life in England. The chapel is both the heart of the college’s life and the center of Augustus Welby Pugin’s work at Oscott, which draws us into the mystery of Christianity and closer to God. Pugin also created the College Museum, which is open to visiting groups. However, Oscott is much more than an beautiful place; it is a living resource for the Church, where generations of priests continue to be trained for the service of the Church.
It was a truly wonderful and deeply uplifting experience for us all and we hope to visit the college again some time in the future.
(Photographs of the College or students are not allowed to be used on the website)
St Mary’s College, Oscott, near Birmingham has been training Catholic priests to serve the community in this country for over 200 years. The College opened in 1794 with a small group of schoolboys and three seminary students. Francis Martyn was ordained in 1805 and was the first priest wholly trained in England since the Reformation. From then until the present day it has trained priests for the Archdiocese of Birmingham and many other English and Welsh dioceses. As the college expanded and Catholic life in England emerged from the penal times the new college was built on this site. This ambitious project the first major Catholic building in England since the Reformation was the brainchild of the Vicar Apostolic, Thomas Walsh, who built the college as a symbol of the renewal of Catholic Life in England. The chapel is both the heart of the college’s life and the center of Augustus Welby Pugin’s work at Oscott, which draws us into the mystery of Christianity and closer to God. Pugin also created the College Museum, which is open to visiting groups. However, Oscott is much more than an beautiful place; it is a living resource for the Church, where generations of priests continue to be trained for the service of the Church.
