The 36th Annual Ordinandi Dinner is returning to Brampton, Ont.’s Pearson Convention Center on March 24 to celebrate and honour the Transitional Deacons of St. Augustine’s and Redemptoris Mater Missionary Seminaries during a time of record interest from young people discerning a religious vocation.

What began nearly four decades ago out of a simple request for help with a small post-ordination celebration has grown into one of the Archdiocese of Toronto's most anticipated vocation events. As with last year, the 2026 Ordinandi Dinner has sold out, this time, just one month after tickets went on sale in October.

Organized collaboratively by St. Augustine’s Seminary, Redemptoris Mater Seminary and the Serra Clubs of the Archdiocese of Toronto, with Serrans handling much of the logistics and promotion, the evening serves as a dual celebration and awareness raiser, spotlighting the ordinandis' unique vocation stories in a way that inspires the broader Catholic community on their journey to the priesthood.

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Mario Biscardi, the founder of the Ordinandi Dinner and a Serran for decades, including as past international president, still recalls how the now-traditional event first began. 

“This started with an ordinandi stationed at my parish who asked me for financial assistance as he was having family and friends over after ordination for simple coffee and cookies. I asked him to come to our Serra Club and talk to us about his vocation journey. Lo and behold, he brought the rest of the class and fast forward 36 years, and we're at a beautiful, 1,900-seat event,” he told The Catholic Register. 

Fr. Scott Birchall, rector at St. Augustine’s Seminary,  participated in the Ordinandi Dinner in 2014. He, too, recalls the grandeur of the event in its more modern form as he sits just days away from attending again, this time as a leader of men who stand where he once did. 

“ You often see a lot of affirmation with the guys. I remember sitting down and thinking the centre was bigger than a football field, but in the end it is a night of great support where the men will feel and see how much our community really loves their priests and seminarians,” he said. 

This year, four transitional deacons are expected, God-willing, to be ordained to the priesthood of the Archdiocese of Toronto. 

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Their vocation stories also serve as an inspiration for the family, parishioners, Serrans, Knights of Columbus, Catholic Women's League, young adults from university chaplaincies, priests, graduates and members of other dioceses who will attend. 

 “It can be especially affirming for guys who are discerning as well to see that there are regular, normal guys like them who are discerning the priesthood. You don't have to be St. Francis of Assisi to discern, but  just someone regular whose been formed and shaped by the Holy Spirit and now ready to go into the parishes to continue to grow,” the rector said. 

The dinner's rapid sell-out in recent years also reflects a surging enthusiasm from the larger Catholic community amid vocational growth in the Archdiocese of Toronto. As highlighted by Birchall, recent years have seen seminary entrants rise from pre-COVID averages of seven or eight annually to 17 to 20, with Come and See Vocation weekends routinely at capacity alongside strong interest in discernment programs. 

“There’s been a huge increase in vocational interest and support, and the prayers are working. Even at  the associates program at Serra House, which would typically have about eight to 10 guys and this year it has about 20 to 21 . We haven't seen those numbers ever,” he said. 

Celeste Iacobelli, a long-standing Serra Club of Vaughan member, shared that this year will again see a daytime youth event for high school students, with a record 910 students from 84 Catholic high schools having been selected by chaplains to attend. There, they will hear the vocation stories of one ordinand and one religious sister, further pushing the hope of the Ordinandi Dinner event being an awareness raiser above all else.  

“ Those students will hear those stories that Fr. Birchall mentioned, about the guys who like to play hockey or the nun who still cycles around the block twice a day. It’s an important component of the entire affirmation of vocations and the awareness surrounding them, and an important part in our archdiocese in that overall plan,” he said.

Iacobelli also shared this year’s class motto, taken from Isaiah 43:1 — “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine." 

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Biscardi remains ever-touched at what the Ordinandi Dinner has comen to symbolize and represent. 

“It’s unbelievable.  It wasn't me, it wasn't Celeste, I think the Holy Spirit has been behind this project,” he said.