Early years Donald Sanborn was born into a Catholic family in
Flushing, Queens,
New York,
United States. There, he attended Catholic elementary and high schools. In 1967, he entered the seminary college for the
Diocese of Brooklyn, where, in 1971, he graduated
cum laude, having majored in classical languages.
Priesthood Society of Saint Pius X In 1971, Sanborn dropped out of the
Seminary of the Immaculate Conception, Canonical recognition of the SSPX had been withdrawn by the local Roman Catholic bishop in May 1975, one month prior to his ordination, and this move was later upheld by the
Holy See: the ordinations were therefore deemed to be
valid but illicit by the Vatican and Sanborn and the other new priests were
suspended a divinis. By 1976, Sanborn was offering the traditional Latin Mass for Catholics on
Long Island, New York, United States, together with
Clarence Kelly. Later in the same year, he was appointed rector of the seminary.
Leaving the Society of Saint Pius X, co-founding the Society of Saint Pius V Lefebvre directed the SSPX's American priests to follow the 1962 edition of the
Roman Missal; Sanborn and eight other American priests refused to do this, preferring to use the 1920 edition. These nine priests accused Lefebvre of being insufficiently traditionalist. According to Sanborn, Lefebvre was imposing these liturgical and disciplinary changes in view of a reconciliation with the Vatican. On April 27, 1983, these nine priests, along with some seminarians who were sympathetic to them, were promptly expelled from the SSPX by Lefebvre, for their refusal to use the 1962 Missal and for other reasons, such as their resistance to Lefebvre's order that priests of the SSPX must accept the decrees of nullity handed down by diocesan marriage tribunals, and their disapproval of the SSPX's policy of accepting into the society new members who had been ordained to the priesthood according to the revised sacramental rites of Paul VI. Almost immediately, these nine priests formed the
Society of Saint Pius V (SSPV).
Most Holy Trinity Seminary In 1995, Sanborn founded the sedevacantist Most Holy Trinity Seminary in
Spring Lake, Florida, United States. Prior to his episcopal consecration later in 2002, the seminary's graduates were ordained by
Daniel Dolan, who was consecrated a bishop in 1993. In 2005, the seminary was relocated to
Brooksville, Florida.
Episcopacy Episcopal consecration On June 19, 2002, in
Detroit, Michigan, Sanborn was consecrated a bishop by the American sedeprivationist bishop
Robert McKenna Episcopal consecration of Selway On February 22, 2018, Sanborn consecrated his intended successor, Joseph Selway, as a bishop, with Bishop Geert Stuyver of the
Istituto Mater Boni Consilii (
Verrua Savoia,
Turin, Italy) and Bishop
Daniel Dolan (from
West Chester, Ohio) assisting as
co-consecrators.
Present day Sanborn currently serves as the Superior General of the Roman Catholic Institute and as the rector of the Most Holy Trinity Seminary which was relocated from
Brooksville, Florida to
Reading, Pennsylvania in Fall 2022. He frequently visits Mass centers in the United States and occasionally travels to Europe, meeting with sedevacantist and sedeprivationist clergy and laity. ==References==