Information about the Seminary

Seminary

Metropolitan Higher Seminary in Warsaw is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical institution of higher education which prepares men for the priesthood. While it serves mainly the archdiocese of Warsaw, it also provides formation for students from other countries. The formation lasts six years. The purpose of the seminarian formation is to help seminarians achieve mature personality, master philosophical and theological knowledge and develop practical skills necessary for priestly ministry today.

Spiritual formation

Spiritual formation is the most important element in the life of the seminarian and future priest. It is developed through constant prayer. Each day in the seminary is centred around the Holy Mass. The Eucharistic devotion is also nourished by evening adoration of the Blessed Sacrament which offers the possibility of personal contact with the Redeemer. This contact is deepened by morning meditation, as the reading of the Word of God is an indispensable element of spiritual growth. Spiritual Directors and confessors help the seminarians to recognize their vocation through interior silence, prayer, sacramental life and ascetic practice.

Intellectual formation

The Seminary provides Master degree course, which lasts six years. During the first two years of study, students learn philosophy that helps them discover God and the world and prepares them for the four-year course of theology. The faculty offers language courses which constitute an essential component of the intellectual formation. The formation team consists of both religious and lay lecturers. The intellectual formation is also supported by the library with its special collection of valuable and rare books. The seminarians have access to the computer room. Fields of study in Polish: History of Philosophy, Anthropology, Ethics, Dogmatic Theology, Fundamental Theology, Moral Theology, Pastoral Theology, Spiritual Theology, Biblical Theology, Biblical Hermeneutics, Liturgical Studies, Patrology, Catholic Social Teaching, Catechetics, Church History, Canon Law, Psychology of Religion.

Ministry and ordination

Each year of seminary formation leads to a new ministry in the Church. The first year introduces the Liturgy of the Hours celebrated in a community. At the end of the second year, seminarians receive cassocks, clerical clothing as the sign of interior transformation and the confirmation of their vocation to the priesthood. The third year brings in the ministry of lector and the fourth year, the ministry of acolyte, that is the extraordinary minister of Holy Communion. The willingness to preach the Gospel, to live in the chastity of celibacy and to pray the Liturgy of the Hours for the faithful leads the seminarians to the diaconate, the first step to the Holy Orders that is received at the end of the fifth year of the formation. The pastoral formation is nourished by numerous pastoral internships and various apostolic ministries which take place at the sixth year. At the end of the sixth year the seminarians receive the Holy Orders. This sacrament prepares the presbyters for the ministry at the altar, in a confessional, and wherever the bishop sends them.

Famous students

Within the three hundred years of its existence, seminary has given the Church in Poland five blessed priests, martyrs of the World War II: Fr. Michal Ozieblowski, Fr. Michal Wozniak, Fr. Edward Detkens, Fr. Zygmunt Sajna, and Fr. Roman Archutowski – the rector of the seminary during the war. They were beatified by John Paul II in 1999 during his pilgrimage to Poland. In the seminary studied Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko, servant of God and Fr. Jan Twardowski whose poems are quoted by preachers in Poland. Some of the former students were ordained bishops. One of them, Fr. Aleksander Kakowski, the rector of the seminary in 1898-1910, was appointed a cardinal.

Facts and figures