[1] In April 1850 he returned from a trip to Europe with ten seminarians and established a seminary in Auckland to complete their formation.
[2] The seminary, which he named "St Mary's College", had Pompallier's Vicar General, the Rev.
[2] The original seminary site is now occupied by St Joseph's Catholic School.
St Mary's Seminary educated at least twenty-four priests,[1] all of them European and some of them already part-trained in Ireland or France.
[2] One, Keremeti Pine from Ōkaihau, was even sent to Rome, where for three years among seminarians from Africa and Asia, he spoke Latin and passable Italian.