[2] The seminary was dedicated to Francis de Sales, seventeenth-century Bishop and saint of the Roman Catholic Church.

Henni Hall was dedicated on January 29, 1856[4] after a new location was chosen for the seminary along the south shore of Lake Township.

[9] Over the past 170 years, Saint Francis de Sales Seminary has graduated over 4,000 priests and over 400 deacons and lay ministers.

[11] Forty-nine tall maple trees line the long road that leads up to Saint Francis de Sales Seminary.

Planted by Austrian immigrant Siegfried Wegerbauer in the 1930s, their canopy now forms cathedral arches shading the path.

[citation needed] During his studies he contracted double pneumonia and promised the Blessed Virgin Mary he would build a grotto in her honor, once he recovered.