Local Administration. Houses of Formation. Fairholt, 1954-1970, 1975-1978 | Saint Michael's College Archives & Special Collections

Scope and Contents: In 1954, the Society purchased Fairholt, a private estate in Burlington, VT. The site was originally used as the Society’s Theologate, which was transferred from Randolph. In 1966, the Society began sending seminarians to St. Basil’s Seminary in Toronto, Canada. The site continued to be used as a residence for the Society’s scholastics who were attending St. Michael’s College. While most of the material deals with regular administrative affairs, items related to the Crisis are quite interesting. Beginning in 1969, the resident scholastics objected to their new Superior. Their objections grew in magnitude and resulted in a request for his removal. When that request was denied, the seminarians removed themselves from Fairholt and asked for formal arbitration on the matter. The seminarians eventually returned to Fairholt, but not before calling into question the Edmundite formation program and Edmundite policies and procedures in place since Vatican II. The file includes not only correspondence from those directly involved, but also includes correspondence from concerned members of the Society.