An interview with Abbot Placid Solari, Chancellor of Belmont Abbey College.
Catholic Herald: Please give us a brief history of Belmont Abbey College.
Abbot Placid Solari: Founded in 1876 as St Mary’s College by the Benedictine monks of St Vincent’s Abbey in Pennsylvania, the college began with just two students and was originally attended by German speakers. St Katharine Drexel, America’s first saint, who entered religious life as a wealthy widow, founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and focused their mission on ministering to Black Americans and Indigenous people, visited the college in 1904 and became a benefactor.
