St. Peter's Seminary's 100 years of influence

“That's influence!”

Fr. Michael Prieur made this joyful exclamation for each St. Peter’s Seminary alumnus he praised for their distinctive marks on the Catholic faith in Canada and abroad.

The sheer scope of notable bishops, priests, permanent deacons, lay apostles, even an eventual member of the cardinalate, Cardinal Thomas Collins archbishop emeritus of Toronto, formed by this major seminary in London, Ont., is impressive.

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Msgr. Thomas West Flannery, heard on five radio stations with his “School of Christ” broadcast during the ‘40s and ‘50s; Archbishop Marcel Gervais, who created the Journey Bible Study Program; and Second World War Air Force chaplain Fr. Michael Dalton are among the “giants of the past.” Prieur spotlighted 10.

The man known affectionately as “Fr. Mickey” has a striking legacy in his own right. After his 1965 priestly ordination, he returned to St. Peter's to serve on the faculty for a record 51 years, specializing in bioethics and the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

He was the 2015 recipient of the distinguished alumni honour not only for his teaching longevity and service as a spiritual director. He also earned the award for his work with the Catholic Health Alliance of Canada and the International Catechetical Council in Rome, along with authoring six books, including the award-winning Panes of Glory about the seminary’s stained glass windows.

It was a treat for him and many alumni to reunite at St. Peter’s from Sept. 28 to 30 for the seminary building’s 100th anniversary. They enjoyed a guided tour, a centennial Mass, a gala, group photos, synodality-related lectures from Bishop William McGrattan of Calgary and Dr. Julian Paparella, and a presentation about “100 years of influence” from Prieur himself.

“We came from across Canada, laypeople, permanent deacons and graduates. And they were so grateful for what they received,” said Prieur.

The stone seminary, built between 1925 and 1926 in the Collegiate Gothic style, is recognized as an architectural marvel for its two-leaf front door, fine stone tracery, hand-carved border of grape clusters and vines, a grand rotunda with a marble floor and more eye-catching characteristics.

Fr. David Wynen, a 1990 alum and now pastor of St. Benedict Parish in Milton, Ont., said the architecture influenced him at the seminary, especially when he attended as the rooms were still rustic. The Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas, set for its own centennial in 1930, is widely revered by Wynen and other students as the highlight.

“The chapel is really such a magnificent building artistically, but certainly spiritually as the heart of our home,” said Wynen, the past president of the alumni association. “It is where we celebrate the Eucharist each day, and morning and evening prayer. Also, during my time, the seminarians had the traditional gathering after the evening meal to pray for priests and to venerate Our Lady with a hymn to Mary.”

Wynen said what has sustained and enriched St. Peter’s Seminary the most in its history is derived from what Bishop Michael Francis Fallon put in place when he founded this formation institution in 1912.

“He had a very simple mission in mind when forming the seminary: parish priests forming parish priests,” said Wynen. “I think that is the key to St. Peter’s Seminary. That is reflected in the motto as well: “I will give you (shepherds) according to mine own heart.”

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Jeremiah 3:15 is the inspiration for the motto.

Fr. Jason Kuntz, the vice rector for formation since 2023, said the approach St. Peter’s is taking to spiritually prepare these shepherds called to serve in the priesthood today is one of human formation.

“We’re preparing the men to be able to engage with the many kinds of different relationships and interactions that they have with the people of God and with their colleagues,” said Kuntz. “One of our more recent initiatives has been formation and relational maturity, a series of modules that have to do with human formation.

“There’s been an effort from all the faculty to embed these practices into our formation,” he explained. “It's not just kind of a separate module that the seminarian completes, but rather the faculty are incorporating this into our individual meetings with seminarians, formation conferences, classes, our preaching in homilies.”

There is also a project centred on synodality to help ready the future priests to both listen and collaborate with the laity.

Kuntz’s immersion into St. Peter's occurred after he joined the staff in 2020. He attended St. Augustine’s Seminary in Toronto. He treasured the one time a year the two seminaries came together to play sports, typically hockey in his day, but soccer now.

The relationship between the two deepened this year as young men interested in St. Peter’s Seminary complete their propaedeutic year of discernment, prayer and growth at Serra House for the first time. This place has hosted spiritual year seminarians from St. Augustine’s for 17 years.

An uncommonly high 20 applications for entrance into St. Peter’s Seminary were submitted for 2026-27. Half of these candidates are at Serra House.

Also present at Serra House is Collins, who graduated from St. Peter’s Seminary in 1973 after just four years of study.  In the 1980s, he returned as a spiritual director and later an associate professor of Scripture. He was named Dean of Theology and vice-rector in 1992, and rector in 1997.

Chuckling that his experiences at St. Peter’s Seminary “were a long time ago,” he expressed gratitude that he could “influence seminary education” so his students would have more time receiving spiritual and intellectual growth before ordination than he did.

He was much more interested in commenting on a seemingly bright future for priestly vocations that he is bearing witness to at Serra House.

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“When we present the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church to the people in its purity, vigour and life, we do not try to tame the Lion of Judah. It attracts enormously. People just flock to it. When you throw doctrine out the window, people do not come through the doors. That’s a basic principle of reality.”

Learn more at stpetersseminary.ca/

(Amundson is an associate editor and writer for The Catholic Register.)

A version of this article appeared in the October 18, 2026 issue of The Catholic Register with the headline "St. Peter's Seminary's 100 years of influence".