Background and founding Following the arrival of the
Society of African Missions to the United States in 1897 (and in full force in 1906), as an outworking of their mission to
people of African descent, the French priest
Ignatius Lissner began advocating forcefully for a seminary to educate African Americans. The climate of
racism, which was displayed even among the bishops themselves, was such that the only Black priests ordained before the late 19th century were the
Healy brothers, all of whom passed for White during their ministries. As a result, most US seminaries remained closed to Black applicants through the mid 20th century. The SMAs, however, worked with a number of US bishops to find an avenue to ordain Black men stateside, and eventually found favor with one
John J. O'Connor in 1921, when Lissner gained permission to open an integrated seminary in Highwood,
Bergen County, New Jersey. Opened on October 11 of that year, it served as a formation center for the SMA's Lyon Province, located in the society's founding country of France.
Joseph John and William Floyd In November 1921, St. Anthony's received the man who would go on to become its first Black graduate,
Joseph Alexander John, a
Grenadian American born in
Carriacou in 1880. He had previously been in formation at
Epiphany Apostolic College (the minor seminary of the Josephites, a religious community exclusively serving African Americans). John had previously been refused admission to Epiphany, until it was agreed that he would live and be ordained with another community. He lived with the
Dominicans and later matriculated to
Saint Paul Seminary in
Saint Paul, Minnesota, under the auspices of the SMAs before arriving in New Jersey. St Anthony's was characterized largely by John's experience there, which included ongoing refusals from US bishops to accept him to serve as an SMA priest in their diocese upon his graduation and ordination. In 1922, St Anthony's had only six students and four faculty, and suffered from a lack of funding. The faculty, having previously been focused on ministry in Africa itself, struggled to relate to African-American students and Lissner himself also expressed a preference for native African students. Racism between students was also a factor, as the interracial nature of St. Anthony's led to various conflicts involving White students and their prejudices against their Black counterparts. He died there in
Cedros in 1943. Floyd was also ordained for the SMAs and later left the society to serve in Trinidad. The seminary closed for studies soon after in 1926. St. Anthony's remains an SMA residence, however, and the SMAs established their American province there in 1941.
21st century As of 2022, the SMA property in Tenafly is a formation house and residence that celebrates liturgy daily, and continues to serve as the headquarters of the SMA's American province. The property also houses the province's African Art Museum. == Notable alumni ==