St. Joseph Regional Seminary completed 86 years of its existence in February 2005.  Situated in the heartland of Hinduism, Indian culture and traditions, it has so far trained nearly 666 indigenous priests who are working in North India.  As the church in the Gangetic plains is very much missionary, the seminary has always given a missionary slant to the formation of priests.

 It was venerable Bishop Angelo Poli, OFM Cap. who started the seminary with just two students in 1919 at Kurji, Patna.  Three years later, when Patna was established as a separate diocese, Bishop Poli had the Seminary shifted to Allahabad.  From 1919 to 1942 the Capuchin Fathers of the Bolonga Province administered the Seminary and contributed to its gradual growth. Frs. Bartholomew, Fidelis Mary, Jeremiah, and Conrad de Vito (later to become the Bishop of Lucknow), all Capuchins, were the Rectors under whose care the Seminary progressed in the formation of Diocesan priests. 

From 1942 to 1949 the French Canadian Capuchins saw to the administration of the Seminary and the formation of the future priests.  Fr. Jerome Malenfant (later to become the Prefect Apostolic of Gorakhpur – Varanasi) Fr. Bernard and others, with the collaboration of the diocesan clergy on the staff, gave a missionary dimension to the priestly formation.

In 1944 the Seminary celebrated its Silver Jubilee.  During all these years the Capuchins alone were working in the Northern territories.  Since the suppression of the Order, no Jesuit had come to work in the North.  Bishop Leonard Raymond invited the Society of Jesus to take up the rectorship and spiritual care of the Seminary.  Fr. M.D. Archangelo S.J. is one of the rectors the Seminary remembers the most.  From 1949 to 1974 the Jesuit Fathers looked after the Seminary.

The year 1969 marked the Golden Jubilee year.  Day scholars from Society of St. Paul, the Indian Missionary Society and the Norbertine Order came to the Seminary and they had their study houses in the vicinity.

In 1973, under the Chairmanship of Bishop Alfred Fernandes, St. Joseph’s Seminary was raised to the status of the Regional Seminary and new statutes were drawn up by the Bishops of the Region.  Since then the Seminary has been governed by the Board of Bishops of the Agra Ecclesiastical Province and administered by the diocesan clergy. Msgr. Vincent Joseph Kaithathara, Fr. Roque D’Costa and Fr. Raphy Manjaly were the diocesan priest-Rectors the Seminary has had so far.

It was Fr. Joe Castelino who was instrumental in getting the seminary affiliated in April 1989 to the Pontifical Urban University in Rome.  Therefore, the students of this Seminary have the opportunity to obtain a bachelor’s degree in theology.

He Seminary is fully committed to the Church’s mission of dialogue and proclamation.  For the past 86 years it has been the endeavour of this Seminary to make the prophetic words of Pope Leo XIII: “Filli tui, India administri tibi salutis”, a reality.