OLGMS ALUMNI
Our Lady of Guadalupe Minor Seminary
BRIEF HISTORY
The seminary was founded by then Archbishop of Manila Rufino Cardinal Santos. In 1953, Cardinal Santos decided to put up an Archdiocesan High School Seminary to accommodate a large number of boys with initial signs of priestly vocation. OLGMS, a subordinate portion of San Carlos Seminary first became known as San Carlos Minor Seminary and was put under the care of the CICM fathers. It is located on a four hectare of prime land overlooking Pasig River, covering the war-ravaged Guadalupe Shrine and Augustinian Seminary. Fr. Frederick Linzenbach, SVD, Engr. Mariano Sideco and Carlos Silva led the construction team and was tasked to put a four-storey building (dormitories, classrooms, library), a faculty building, an auditorium and a chapel. The building with the image of the Our Lady of Guadalupe on its domed roof soon became a very visible landmark along what was then known as Highway 54 (now EDSA). On August 22, 1955, feast of the Queenship of Mary, the seminary was inaugurated by Rev. Msgr. Alfredo Poledrini, Charge d’ Affairs of the Apostolic Nunciature at that time. .
NURTURING VOCATION
The seminary, which offers a high school education, attracted young boys who wanted to be priests. Enrollment reached a peak in the early 70s when there would be about 50 to 100 students in a class. In time the number would dwindle, the result of both more stringent admission policies and an increasingly secularized environment.
OBJECTIVES
True to its mission of nurturing the seed of priestly vocation through a holistic formation, the seminary aims to foster growth of the seminarian into the fullness of Christian life through an integrated program that takes into account his physical, affective, intellectual, socio-cultural and spiritual development; to help the seminarian to discern the state of life befitting his character and charism as a child of God; to create an atmosphere conducive for the assimilation and deepening of values necessary for the formation of genuine servant leaders; to expose the seminarian to the ideals and demands of the priesthood through a process conforming to their age and development; to assist the seminarian in recognizing and responding to the initial signs of priestly vocation; and to prepare the seminarian for the major seminary formation.