Magdalen College

Magdalen College, a small, orthodox Catholic liberal arts college located in New Hampshire is profiled this week by the National Catholic Register:

If someone were to comment that Magdalen College’s campus is “kind of secluded,” the college’s president, Jeffrey Karls, might be apt to tell them the location is by design. The campus, outside of Warner, N.H., is quiet, but also close to amenities such as Manchester-Boston Regional Airport and the coast.

“We were looking for a property that would be sort of off the beaten trail so that students, who are oftentimes, and even employees who are oftentimes, immersed in very busy lifestyles, would have a place of peace and quiet with natural surroundings that are some of the best that New Hampshire has to offer,” said Karls.

Students at Magdalen have other ways to be in the present moment, such as limited cell phone usage and curtailed Internet access for social networking sites like Face book. They have more of a set structure than their peers do at Big State U. This includes required campus-based service (such as kitchen work and snow removal), curfews and the occasional room check. The college’s structure is in place to develop lives lived in common while growing in virtue, knowledge and practice of the Catholic faith.

The college was founded by three laymen who were inspired by the documents of Vatican II: Gaudium et Spes, the title of the pastoral constitution on “the Church in the modern world,” is prominent on the college’s seal. The founders felt a call to equip students to live in the world, and, along the way, students at Magdalen have discovered their vocations.

Out of more than 425 graduates, nearly 50 have gone on to the seminary or religious life.

Though the school is small — even compared to other Catholic liberal arts colleges — it has gotten a lion’s share of positive attention, including the Cardinal Newman Society’s designation of “Joyfully Catholic” in its guide to choosing Catholic colleges and a four-day visit in April from Cardinal Francis Arinze. He gave a keynote address at the annual President’s Council Dinner titled “Distinguishing Marks of a Catholic University.”

“I see the faculty and students praying together. The Mass is celebrated with devotion,” Cardinal Arinze, former prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, told the Register during the visit. “They sing in Latin; they sing in English, and they pray on their own. … That is a sign of a Catholic institution. ... I see them also function as a type of spiritual and intellectual family”...Continued

The website for Magdalen College can be found here.

Magdalen College is endorsed by the Cardinal Newman Society (CNS). The CNS profile of Magdalen can be found here.