From our Rector's Desk
Welcome to the official website of the “Village of Peace”-St. Peter Claver Seminary, Okpala situated in the Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria. I am delighted as the Rector of this prestigious institution to present the Seminary with this website platform in her profound uniqueness as basically a nursery seed bed to nurture vocations to the Catholic Priesthood and secondly a noble institution of learning, character formation and academic excellence.
St. Peter Claver Seminary dates back to the early days of 1942 and is located midway between the cities of Owerri and Aba in a semi urban town known as Okpala.
The Seminary at present is blessed with 5 seasoned Priest-Formators in the staff, 2 Senior Seminarians on Pastoral Year, 13 lay-teachers, 7 student teachers on One year Junior Apostolic work, 11 domestic staff, and a total of 280 seminarians that comprises the three classes of the seminary SS1, SS2 and SS3.
The Optatam Totius "Decree on the training of Priest" of the Vatican Council II, described minor seminaries to be instituted chiefly to nurture seeds of vocation. For this reason, St. Peter Claver Seminary, Okpala is a mother to her countless sons who are at present Bishops and Archbishops, Priests, Religious men and Dignitaries of great repute, making waves in the ecclesiastical and secular spheres of life.
The desire for optimal holistic formation is the driving force of my administration as Rector of this seminary and collaboratively with my team of formators and with the cooperation of our seminarians, the future of the Church in the Archdiocese and beyond is assured and Christ's mission of evangelization is sure to rest on the shoulders of young men formed in conscience to be dedicated, holy, and ideal priests for God and for humanity.
