St. Bon's College Photos

St. Bonaventure’s College

Founded in 1857 by Bishop John Thomas Mullock, St. Bonaventure’s College was the first collegiate school for Roman Catholic boys in St. John’s. The College was initially operated by the Franciscans, but in 1889 it was taken over by the Irish Christian Brothers.

While construction of a permanent building near the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. John the Baptist was underway, classes began in the former bishop’s residence on Henry Street on December 1, 1856, with eight boarders and thirty-two day students. The College was formally blessed on October 4, 1858, and named St. Bonaventure’s after the college in Seville, Spain, where Bishop Mullock had studied.

By the turn of the twentieth century, the College required additional space to accommodate its growing student population. Mullock Hall was constructed in 1908–1909 and named in tribute to the school’s founder.

St. Bonaventure’s College remained under the direction of the Irish Christian Brothers as a public Roman Catholic school until 1988. Following school amalgamations and the end of Newfoundland’s denominational public school system in 1998, St. Bon’s closed.

With the support of the Jesuits (Society of Jesus), the College was re-established in 1999 as an independent, fee-paying Catholic school. Initially led by a Jesuit President, it now operates with both a lay President and a lay Principal, while continuing under Jesuit auspices.

In 2012, the College donated a collection of 448 black-and-white photographs. The photographs were mounted on 45 thick sheets of cardboard to form collages and had been framed and displayed in the main auditorium of St. Bonaventure’s College.