Saint John's University Mission Statement

The mission of Saint John's University is to renew the fabric of community from one generation to the next, ever striving for excellence, ever grounded in Benedictine tradition.

Saint John's University provides education in the liberal arts and graduate theological disciplines within the Catholic university tradition.

Saint John's seeks to preserve the well springs of human culture, to deepen understanding of human interdependence, and to prepare students for full, integrated lives of faith and reason, action and love.

Saint John's strives to relate teaching, learning and scholarship to the residential life of the campus, community worship, the practice of the arts, and programs of service.

These activities are animated by the Benedictine practices of community life, prayer, hospitality and the search for wisdom, as well as by Saint John's own historic commitments to the well being of diverse human communities, the formation of leaders in successive generations, and the ongoing renewal of the Church.

Saint John's pursues this mission on the undergraduate level, where it offers residential liberal arts education in coordination with the College of Saint Benedict, as well as through graduate theological education, long-standing programs of cultural preservation and transmission, and a variety of sponsored programs.

SJU Vision for the Future

The following activities are envisioned as the primary means through which Saint John's University will seek broader recognition in the next 5-10 years.  This list suggests the priorities for the major comprehensive campaign slated for 2004-08, as well as the central themes for the celebration of Saint John's Sesquicentennial in 2006-07.

Commitment to Accessibility and Aspiration
Saint John's will excel in providing a unique and accessible educational environment for a diverse community of undergraduate men, as well as a graduate community of male and female students of theology, drawn from a broad range of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds and showing evidence of the capacity to pursue, respectively, liberal arts studies and graduate theological education with distinction. 

Commitment to Educational Excellence
Saint John's will excel in providing undergraduate and graduate students with a superb education by recruiting, developing, and retaining a talented and diverse faculty and staff, with an exceptional commitment to teaching and service, scholarship and the mentoring of students. 

Service to the Church
Saint John's will excel in fostering exceptional scholarship, study and outreach in monastic studies, liturgical studies and lifelong learning for ministers, lay and ordained, women and men, leaders and committed members of faith communities within the Catholic tradition, the broader ecumenical Church and the multi-religious landscape of the contemporary world.   

Witness to Benedictine Values
Saint John's will excel in fostering the understanding and cultivation of reflection and prayer, creativity and self-sacrifice, with a special emphasis on the intellectual, ethical, spiritual, physical and social development of men.    

Stewardship of Knowledge and Culture
Saint John's will excel in the preservation and transmission of knowledge and culture, with special emphasis on unique and threatened religious and cultural resources, the natural environment and artistic creativity.