Holy Cross College, New Zealand

[1] In 1896 Verdon expressed the need for local training from a particular perspective when he complained that his "most promising student James Liston had returned from Manly to New Zealand "undernourished and unwell".

[1] Verdon was determined that New Zealand should have its own seminary and offered to take full personal responsibility for the venture.

The seminary, with eleven students in residence, and with Bishop Verdon as its first Rector, opened on 3 May 1900, the Feast of the Holy Cross.

Built in true Roman style, with semicircular windows, marble altar, gilded copper ceiling and classic ionic pilasters, the chapel was an important part of Verdon's attempt to recreate at Mosgiel the spiritual atmosphere of Rome.

The gradual establishment of various institutions like a printery, bindery, butchery, darkroom and farm separated it from the life of the surrounding community.

In 1963 a new chapel, called the Verdon chapel, was completed and the remains of Bishop Verdon were reinterred there during a Pontifical Requiem Mass offered by Archbishop Liston[6] The function of preparation for entering Holy Cross College was fulfilled from 1947 by the founding of Holy Name Seminary, Christchurch, a minor seminary operated by the Jesuits.

[8] The monastic and separatist ideal was challenged after the Second Vatican Council and the publication of Gaudium et spes ("the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World").

[10] Also there had been a negative review carried out by the University of Otago of the courses offered by Holy Cross College which greatly diminished the Bishops' commitment to staying at Mosgiel.

The main reasons given for the shift were the possibility of finding it easier to get qualified staff and also the need for the seminary to be more open to Maori and Pacific cultures (heavily concentrated in Auckland and the north).

Most New Zealand Catholic secular priests ordained since 1900 are graduates of Holy Cross College.