[1] The Philosophy Division of Saint Philip's Seminary was founded in 1986, Gerald Emmett Cardinal Carter requested Fr.

In the fall of 1988, a residential program providing intellectual training, spiritual and personal formation was made available to seminarians from Dioceses and Religious Communities.

In 2007, a three-year course of studies with an expanded set of degrees was provided at the request of the Archdiocese of Toronto and St. Augustine's Seminary.

The Congregation for Education in January 2011 instituted the three-year course of philosophical studies as the norm for seminarians.

However, the Ontario legislature officially recognized the seminary as a degree-granting institution through the passage "An Act respecting The Oratory of Saint Philip Neri, 1990".