[1] Sedevacantists are traditionalist Catholics believe that all pontiffs after Pius XII are false popes due to perceived error taught in the Second Vatican Council.

[2] St. Michael's was founded by Father Joseph Caruana as a Jesuit mission just north of Spokane in the mid-19th century to serve the Native Americans in the area.

The four story Tudor-Gothic building was built in the shape of a "T" and contained a chapel, dining room, kitchen, gymnasium, physics and chemistry labs, lecture halls and residences for the scholastics.

In 1930 a seismometer from Gonzaga University was moved to a basement laboratory at Mount St. Michael, where seismologists kept careful records of seismic activity.

Jesuit brothers, farmers, tailors, bakers, cobblers, bee keepers and horticulturists, saw to the material needs of the community and the formation of the candidates placed in their charge.

For the next ten years, Mount St. Michael served as a residence for retired Jesuit priests and as an ecumenical prayer and retreat center.

Schuckardt founded a sedevacantist congregation at Mount St. Michael, and eventually declared himself the true Pope,[3] before being ousted by other members of the CMRI, on account of credible allegations of grave immorality.

[1] The Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church was formed under the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane by 15 nuns expelled from Mount St. Michael in 2007 for rejecting their former group's Sedevacantist teaching.