Holy Rosary Minor Seminary

About Holy Rosary Minor Seminary

According to Wikipedia, Holy Rosary Minor Seminary is a Roman Catholic seminary or a house of formation for high school and college would-be priests run by the Archdiocese of Caceres in Naga City, Philippines. History Founded on March 7, 1793 by Archbishop Antonio Gallego of Manila, Holy Rosary Minor Seminary started as Casa de Clerigos in a place called Padian near the Bicol River. It was canonically erected as Seminario Conciliar de Nueva Caceres in compliance with the Tridentine Decree that every diocese must have a seminary. In 1840, it was transferred from Padian to its present site along Elias Angeles St. When the seminary building opened in 1793 it was made of wood, bamboo and nipa which a certain bishop noted as "combustible and of non-durable materials". The initial staff was composed of a rector ; a vice-rector and two other professors who taught Latin and Humanities. In nine years after its opening, it had 11 deacons, 24 subdeacon and 247 minor seminarians. In 1855, the seminary building was damaged by a strong earthquake and a fire razed it the ground in 1863. In 1865, Nueva Caceres Bishop Francisco Gainza rebuilt and expanded the new seminary building. The Vincentian Fathers took over the management and formation of the seminary in 1865 to become a seminary-college and center of education for lay people in Southern Luzon. In 1925, Bishop Francisco Reyes renamed it as Seminario del Santissimo Rosario and abolished the College and retained the Conciliar Seminary. It was partly damaged when it was bombed by the Japanese during the second war.