Saint Vincent College is an educational community rooted in the tradition of the Catholic faith, the heritage of Benedictine monasticism, and the love of values inherent in the liberal approach to life and learning. Its mission is to provide quality undergraduate and graduate education for men and women to enable them to integrate their professional aims with the broader purposes of human life. The programs, activities, and encounters that make up student life at Saint Vincent College encourage the intellectual gifts, professional aptitudes and personal aspirations of students to mature harmoniously.

Saint Vincent Archabbey and College was founded in 1846 by Boniface Wimmer, a monk from the Benedictine Abbey of Metten in Bavaria.

Wimmer came to America with the intention of educating the sons of German immigrants and training a native clergy for the German-speaking peoples of the United States. He settled on the site of a parish established for English and Irish Catholics in 1789, and very quickly learned that his monks would not be able to limit their attention to Germans alone. With the aid of several American bishops, friends and benefactors in Europe, and a strong community of Benedictine monks at the monastery of Saint Vincent, he established the first Benedictine college in the United States. From modest beginnings the college grew rapidly, and on 18 April 1870 the State Legislature of Pennsylvania incorporated the school, empowering it "to grant and confer degrees in the arts and sciences as are granted in other colleges and universities in the United States, and to grant to graduates, or persons on whom such degrees may be conferred, diplomas or certificates as is usual in colleges and universities.''

From its earliest days Saint Vincent College has striven to embody the ideals and character of the fifteen-hundred-year-old heritage of Benedictine education and scholarship. Based firmly on the ideal of Christian community, this heritage has contributed to both the survival and dissemination of Western culture. It has been an enduring heritage because of its capacity to adjust to the exigencies of successive ages. For almost one hundred and fifty years the monks of Saint Vincent have worked to exemplify and to carry on this living tradition. From their ranks men have established Benedictine colleges and schools in Minnesota, Kansas, North Carolina, New Jersey, Illinois, and Georgia, among other places.

In the words of a college catalogue of the 1850's, Saint Vincent is located in an "elevated and healthy" area. Situated on a foothill of the Alleghenies, the school commands a panoramic view of the countryside. In January of 1963 a fire destroyed part of the campus and in the years which have followed a new age in the history of the college has begun. Out of the ashes of the past a new Saint Vincent has emerged. With a deep awareness of the heritage and tradition which is its foundation, the community has once again turned its face toward the future. And perhaps no better image of this dynamic commitment to a creative relationship between old and new exists than the campus itself, whose newly constructed and aesthetically pleasing modern buildings blend harmoniously with the older structures built by the pioneer monks themselves.

Saint Vincent College became coeducational in 1983 as a major step to strengthen all aspects of the community life and educational services of the College. The decision was based on a belief that the College was in a strong position to offer men and women the opportunity of personal development and solid career preparation in a wholesome environment grounded in the time-tested Benedictine educational and religious tradition.

Saint Vincent College, along with the other units of the Saint Vincent Community--Archabbey, Seminary and Parish--observed the 150th anniversary of its founding in 1996 with an 18-month series of activities and events which recognized the rich history and heritage of Saint Vincent while focusing attention on planning and preparing for the future.