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Immerse Yourself in a Neighborhood One Step from Rome

Walk around ������'s campus and you can’t help but notice religious sisters and clergy of many different orders and traditions. Dominican sisters in their white and black habits play frisbee on our University lawns. Brown-robed franciscans listen intently during class lectures alongside other undergraduates. The presence of Catholic priests, sisters, and seminarians in great numbers on campus has been a defining characteristic of the University since its founding.

The establishment of ������ in 1887 in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington, D.C., attracted many other Catholic institutions to the surrounding area. Religious orders established seminaries, houses of study, monasteries, and other ministries in the neighborhood so their members could attend classes at ������. The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception — the largest Roman Catholic church in North America — was built beside ������’s campus. The trend continued as more and more Catholic orders and institutions moved into Brookland to form a vibrant surrounding Catholic community, one that still continues today, and has earned it the nickname of “Little Rome.”

Catholic orders and institutions that have made their home in Brookland — many of which remain to this day, include:

• The Paulist Fathers, who established St. Paul’s College in 1914
• Theological College, founded by the Society of St. Sulpice in 1917
• The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, begun in 1920
• St. Anselm’s Abbey, built in 1924
• The Scholasticate of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception
• Capuchin College of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin
• The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate
• The Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family
• The Little Sisters of the Poor
• St. Joseph’s Seminary of the Society of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart
• The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
• The Monastery of the Holy Cross
• The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration
• The Order of Carmelites
• The Sisters of Notre Dame
• The Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará
• The Institute of the Incarnate Word
• The Missionaries of Charity
• The Chancery of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA
• The Dominican House of Studies
• The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia
• Saint John Paul II Seminary of the Archdiocese of Washington
• The Saint John Paul II National Shrine

Additionally, and with great honor, ������’s campus has been visited by three popes (Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis) — the only University in the United States with this distinction.