(ZENIT News – OMPress / Rome, 07.07.2025) – The Bigard Memorial Seminary in Enugu, Nigeria, has more than 700 seminarians, 548 diocesan and the rest, up to 700, from eight different Congregations, which entrust to this Seminary the formation of their men religious. No fewer than 63 Bishops and Cardinals have passed through its Chapel and classrooms.
The Seminary celebrated its centenary last year and was founded, like so many others in Africa, at the initiative of a missionary. It was the Apostolic Vicar of Southern Nigeria, the Spiritan missionary Joseph Shanahan, who inaugurated it in 1924. It was first located in Onitsha, then moved to various locations: Igbariam, Eke, Ogui . . . always due to space constraints, until it reached its current location in Enugu in 1951, when it was dedicated to Jeanne Bigard. In its 100 years, it has stood out as a center of excellence in the formation of future priests. The Seminary has trained 4 Cardinals, 14 Archbishops, 35 Bishops, and thousands of priests, not only for the Church of Nigeria, but also for Sierra Leone and Cameroon.
The name Jeanne Bigard is a tribute of gratitude to the Founder of the Pontifical Society of Saint Peter the Apostle for vocations in mission countries. The aid it has received each year, almost since its founding, has been decisive, the fruit of the generosity of thousands of Catholic faithful from around the world who have considered that the greatest gift to a young and dynamic Church, such as that of Nigeria, is well-formed and healthy priests. Last year alone, US$180,560 was sent to the Bigard Memorial Seminary, an amount that does not cover all expenses, but which the Seminary’s Formators and Superiors can count on year after year in their budget.
Jeanne Bigard deserves this Pontifical Seminary. Born in the same Normandy in which years later Thérèse of the Child Jesus, the Patron Saint of the missions, would be born, her youth coincided with the full development of the missionary cooperation network of modern times, promoted by so many Founders and Foundresses, and, above all, by Blessed Pauline Jaricot and Monsignor Charles-Auguste-Marie- Joseph Forbin-Janson, also Founders of what would eventually become the Pontifical Missionary Societies. Together with her mother, Stéphanie Bigard, Jeanne dedicated herself to helping missionaries, corresponding with many of them. It was precisely a letter, which they received on June 1, 1889, that was the seed of all this.
The Bishop of Nagasaki at the time told them to help Japanese seminarians more than the missionaries, whom many others were helping. Thus, with Jeanne Bigard, he found his calling: to dedicate his life to the missionary world in need of priests. The Work he created, the current Pontifical Society of Saint Peter the Apostle, began with various initiatives, such as perpetual scholarships, adoptions of seminarians, prayer intentions, and various ways to raise funds. Six years after its creation, in 1895, it had a thousand members and a long list of scholarships, worth one hundred thousand francs, for Asian and African seminarians. It continued to grow until Pope Pius XI adopted it as his own in 1922, something Jeanne Bigard experienced with great joy, as she would not die until 1934.
Last year, this Work supported 778 seminaries, which welcomed 82,859 candidates. The thousands of small donations, which have reached so many places around the world over the years, have borne the seal of Jeanne Bigard, and were in some way a Memorial to Jeanne Bigard.
