With Philosophical studies, the students enter into what is known as Major Seminary Formation. Every philosophical enquiry is aimed at cultivating a reflective and critical mind that would enable discernment of what is true and noble in life; it facilitates acquiring a coherent understanding of man, world, and God. Formation at this stage aims at maturity at various levels, human, personal, and spiritual.
The students of the OLGH Province pursue their philosophical studies at St. Paul’s, Trichy. There are four students, one in the second year, and three in the first year. They stay at a rented facility near Trichy Airport. With the beginning of a community here, we have also entered officially the Trichy Diocese.
St. Vincent lived through a turbulent time in Italian history, i.e., in the post-French Revolution era. After his initial studies, he was a student at the Sapienza University from 1814 – 1818 and graduated with Doctorates in Philosophy and Theology. He was ordained in 1818. In 1835, he founded the Union of the Catholic Apostolate, a pious society, which attempted to bring together lay people, priests and religious to collaborate in the revival of faith and charity, aimed at apostolic action. Significant among the apostolic activities of this society was social service for the poor and the needy, in the city of Rome and in the missions abroad. This Society’s service to the suffering humanity during the Cholera Epidemic that ravaged the city of Rome in 1837 is note worthy. To animate the Union of the Catholic Apostolate and its activities, he founded the Society of the Catholic Apostolate, a community of Priests and Brothers, and a community of sisters. St. Vincent died on January 22, 1850. He was beatified after a century in 1950, and was canonized a saint on January 20, 1963, during the Second Vatican Council by Pope John XXIII
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As a Saint, he lived in such an intimate union with God that at only 45 years of age, he reached the highest degree of Mysticism: Transforming Union and Spiritual Marriage. As the Founder of the Priests and Brothers, Sisters and Associates of the Society of the Catholic Apostolate, he brought into the mainstream of the Church the idea of unity, coordination and participation of all, especially the laity who are essential elements of universal and effective apostolic work within the Church.