The college was founded by five young German sisters: Mother M. Ferdinanda Hoelzer, OSB, Sr. Petronilla Keller, OSB, Sr. Cresentia Veser, OSB, Sr. Winfrieda Mueller, OSB, and Novice Alexia Ruedenauer on December 3, 1906 at the request of Apostolic Delegate Monsignor
Dom Ambrose Agius,
O.S.B. and
Archbishop of Manila Jeremiah James Harty, D.D. to give religious education to the children of
Manila. The site of the college was then a small residential house surrounded by fishermen's huts in the fishing village of
Tondo. There were then six paying students and 50 non-paying students or scholars. A year after the college opened, it moved to a property in San Marcelino Street in
Manila which was later occupied by
St. Theresa's College (Manila) and where
Adamson University now stands. The school was then housed in an old military barracks. On December 14, 1914, the college was moved again to another site in Singalong Street where the college presently stands. The latest campus is bounded by Estrada Street on the north, P. Ocampo Street on the south, Singalong Street on the east and Leon Guinto Street on the west. The land, about was bought for the amount of two cents per square meter. The college was ravaged by
World War II where its school buildings were all destroyed. Reconstruction of the buildings began in 1946 and took nine years to restore. In 2024, the campus' five main buildings, namely the St. Scholastica Building, St. Cecilia's Hall, St. Hildegard Building, St. Benedict Building, and St. Scholastica's Chapel, were designated as "Important Cultural Properties" by the
National Museum of the Philippines. ==Academics==