Qualla: College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University https://qualla.com/college-of-saint-benedict-and-saint-john-s-university en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:05 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/h/g/college-of-saint-benedict-and-saint-john-s-university-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University https://qualla.com/college-of-saint-benedict-and-saint-john-s-university College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University: Introduction https://qualla.com/college-of-saint-benedict-and-saint-john-s-university/ Photo credit Tomruen, CC BY-SA 4.0. The monks have been baking Johnnie Bread since 1856 -- a year before Minnesota became a state -- and they have used the proceeds to build a church. Not just any church: in 1954, the Benedictine community at Saint John's Abbey invited twelve architects to submit plans for a house of worship that would be "truly an architectural monument to the service of God." They chose Marcel Breuer, the Hungarian-born Bauhaus master, whose bold concrete Abbey Church and its freestanding bell banner now rise above 2,500 acres of oak savanna, wetlands, and lakes in Collegeville Township. Three and a half miles east, in the town of St. Joseph, the College of Saint Benedict occupies its own historic campus. Together, these two Benedictine institutions -- Saint John's University for men, founded in 1857, and the College of Saint Benedict for women, opened in 1913 -- form one of the most distinctive liberal arts partnerships in America, with 3,000 students sharing a single academic program across two campuses linked by a bus they call "The Link."

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]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/h/g/college-of-saint-benedict-and-saint-john-s-university-wp/cbhg-college-of-saint-benedict-and-saint-johns-universi-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University: Bavarian Roots on the Prairie https://qualla.com/college-of-saint-benedict-and-saint-john-s-university/ Photo credit McGhiever, CC BY-SA 3.0. The story begins with five monks from Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, who arrived in St. Cloud, Minnesota, in 1856. They had emigrated from the Kingdom of Bavaria under the patronage of King Ludwig II, and their mission was to minister to the growing population ...

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]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/h/g/college-of-saint-benedict-and-saint-john-s-university-wp/cbhg-college-of-saint-benedict-and-saint-johns-universi-bavarian-roots-on-the-prairie.mp3 0:06 2 full College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University: Breuer's Concrete Cathedral https://qualla.com/college-of-saint-benedict-and-saint-john-s-university/ Photo credit McGhiever, CC BY-SA 4.0. By the early 1950s, the monastic community had swelled to roughly 450 monks, and the original abbey church could no longer hold them all. The selection of Marcel Breuer proved inspired. His design incorporated the traditional liturgical axis -- baptistery, nave, altar -- within a...

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]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/h/g/college-of-saint-benedict-and-saint-john-s-university-wp/cbhg-college-of-saint-benedict-and-saint-johns-universi-breuers-concrete-cathedral.mp3 0:06 3 full College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University: One Curriculum, Two Campuses https://qualla.com/college-of-saint-benedict-and-saint-john-s-university/ Photo credit AlexiusHoratius, CC BY-SA 3.0. The partnership between CSB and SJU began modestly in 1955 with joint evening classes. By the 1960s, the schools shared a full academic program, and today approximately 300 professors -- 85 percent of them full-time -- teach co-educational classes across both campuses. The result...

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]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/h/g/college-of-saint-benedict-and-saint-john-s-university-wp/cbhg-college-of-saint-benedict-and-saint-johns-universi-one-curriculum-two-campuses.mp3 0:06 4 full College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University: Maple Syrup, Manuscripts, and a Solar Farm https://qualla.com/college-of-saint-benedict-and-saint-john-s-university/ Photo credit Tomruen, CC BY-SA 4.0. The SJU campus is wrapped in 2,500 acres of arboretum -- oak savanna, forest, prairie, wetlands, and lakes crisscrossed by Nordic skiing and hiking trails. The most beloved path is the chapel walk along Lake Sagatagan to Stella Maris Chapel. Every spring since 1942, when wartime ...

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]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/h/g/college-of-saint-benedict-and-saint-john-s-university-wp/cbhg-college-of-saint-benedict-and-saint-johns-universi-maple-syrup-manuscripts-and-a-solar-farm.mp3 0:06 5 full College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University: From Eugene McCarthy to the NSA Director https://qualla.com/college-of-saint-benedict-and-saint-john-s-university/ Photo credit John Polo, CC BY-SA 3.0. The alumni roster reads like a cross-section of American public life. Eugene McCarthy, class of 1935, served in Congress from 1949 to 1971 and launched an antiwar presidential campaign that helped reshape the Democratic Party. Denis McDonough, class of 1992, became White House Ch...

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]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/h/g/college-of-saint-benedict-and-saint-john-s-university-wp/cbhg-college-of-saint-benedict-and-saint-johns-universi-from-eugene-mccarthy-to-the-nsa-director.mp3 0:06 6 full