Founded in Galveston in 1855, it closed in 1922 when its operator, the Jesuit Order, decided to concentrate their efforts on universities in New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama.
[1] In 1926 its charter was transferred to St. Mary's Seminary in La Porte, Texas (now in Houston).
The University was founded as a seminary for the training and education of native-born men into the priesthood.
However, to help make the seminary self-supporting, and at the same time provide a Catholic education for the youth in the area, Odin decided to include in the project a college for boys.
The initial enrollment of St. Mary's University was sixty traditional college students and a handful of seminarians.