The school's mission is to prepare its male students for vocations (ordained, vowed religious, married, or single life) in the Catholic Church.

[citation needed] On February 2, 1849 the pioneer priest Father Caspar Rehrl purchased the hilltop land at Mount Calvary from John Blonigen.

On October 15, 1856 [2] two Swiss diocesan priests, Gregory Haas and John Anthony (Bonaventure) Frey, arrived by horseback on the hill called Mount Calvary in east central Wisconsin.

They arrived in Milwaukee, where Bishop John Martin Henni, a fellow countryman, welcomed them to work among the immigrants in the diocese.

The 29-year-old Haas returned to Europe to beg funds and to bring back a Capuchin to serve as novice master for him and Frey and any other candidates who joined them.

Father Anthony Maria, the novice master, lost interest in the undertaking and began to work among the Menominee people in Keshena, Wisconsin.

The college served to educate young men, some of whom the founders hoped would be drawn to join the new Capuchin foundation.

From 1905 through 1907 the rector of Saint Lawrence College was Father Joseph Wald who was originally from Green Bay, Wisconsin.

He had been the rector of Saint Lawrence College prior to the decision that it serve exclusively Capuchin candidates.

In 1923 the General Minister of the Order visited the college and said Capuchin candidates should not be educated with diocesan seminarians and others in the same institution.

[5] That same year property two miles distant from the seminary was purchased to provide a campus for Saint Francis Brothers’ School, which opened with 11 students in 1954.

In 1968 Father Rupert Dorn, the Provincial of the Capuchin Province wrote, "We know that some minor seminaries have closed down.

Academic requirements in the United States in the late 1960s and the 1970s dictated the discontinuance of the junior college department at Saint Lawrence Seminary.

With many minor seminaries closing, some questioned the reason for the continued high enrollment of Saint Lawrence.

The study concluded that one thing Saint Lawrence Seminary could do with excellence was to provide a foundation for a life of ministry in the Church.

Priests, brothers, deacons, and lay alumni indicated that the personal relationship with God they developed during their days at Saint Lawrence inspired their adult lives.

Saint Lawrence Seminary modified its philosophy and mission to include young men who wanted to lay a foundation for a life of ministry in the Church.

In 1992 the Milwaukee Journal published a series of articles alleging the sexual abuse of students by members of the Capuchin Order.

The seminary hired a law firm to contact all alumni to ascertain the extent of the problem and offer assistance.

Dennis Druggan was removed from the ministry after a provincial review board stated that there was "sufficient evidence to sustain the allegations".

Throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century St. Lawrence Seminary has become an increasingly multicultural institution dedicated to preparing young men for a life of ministry within the Catholic Church.

St. Lawrence Seminary continues to function as a college preparatory school, partnering with parents and providing for ministry and leadership in the Roman Catholic Church.

Underlying the school's philosophy is the conviction that the primary obligation of all Christians is to witness to gospel values in that vocation to which God calls them.

Combined with this belief is the additional conviction that such values are not only the path to eternal salvation and union with God for each individual but also the only real remedy for the ills of the human community.

Therefore, the staff of St. Lawrence Seminary attempts to promote and foster these values in themselves and in the adolescents who enter into and participate in the life of the community.

The overriding purpose for St. Lawrence's existence is to promote, foster, and live principles and values announced in the gospel of Jesus Christ and articulated in the Catholic Church.

Used to describe St. Lawrence of Brindisi, Celsitudo ex humilitate can be translated literally as “To the heavens out of our humility” or more poetically as “To the heights, from the depths.” The seal depicts a cross on a hill with the motto and date of the school's founding.

On Field Day he was meticulously attentive, leaving nothing to chance, personally supervising the making of sandwiches, the purchase of ice cream, soda, and the other trimmings.

The morning traditionally ends with a "Don't be late for Chapel" event, a relay race from the bottom of the hill to the top.

The 3,500 lay alumni have entered a great variety of professions, many have been in involved in active ministry in the Catholic Church.