St. Vincent Seminary will be honored during River Campus anniversary

As the River Campus nears its 10th anniversary next year, part of the festivities will honor the religious order that established a seminary at that location.

Denis Rigdon, who attended what was St. Vincent's Seminary from 1961 to 1965, said there is a sizable community of former students that follow the history of the school and are looking forward to the commemoration.

"There's a lot of interest in the history," he said. "A lot of people who went through there; it changed their lives, even if they didn't end up becoming priests."

Rigdon runs a 60-member email server where former seminary students can share photos and updates.

"There are people all over the United States that (local history buff) Jerry Ford has been running into who are connected to the seminary there," he said.

The seminary was founded by the Congregation of the Mission, also known as the Vincentians, in 1843, a time when institutions of higher learning were rare.

"This educational institution may have been the first higher educational institution established west of the Mississippi River," Rigdon said.

But many worried what would be the seminary's fate before it became part of Southeast Missouri State University.

"We watched it deteriorate; we were afraid we were going to lose it for a while," Rigdon said.

On March 7, 2017, attendees will be able to take tours of the River Campus before the ceremony, which will include a performance of a symphony piece being written for the occasion.

Ford, who works at the Cape Girardeau River Heritage Museum, said he expects hundreds from all over the country to attend the event. The Vincentian emissary in Ireland has been spreading the word in Europe as well.

Although Rigdon left the seminary before graduating, he said that his experience was transformative.

"Two hundred years ago, they came from Europe to be missionaries," he said of the Vincentians. "There's a lot of camaraderie that goes on, and it's possible we wouldn't have the university where it is unless the seminary hadn't already been there."

Its nearly 200-year history, the seminary's legacy of founding area churches and the former seminary's location at the Mississippi River all are reasons Rigdon said the turnout should be impressive next spring.

"People go around the world looking for something like that," he said of the tranquility of the former seminary's campus. "There's a lot of excitement about it, and it celebrates the fact that the Congregation of the Mission wanted to make a change in the world."

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627