Founded by members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, Duquesne first opened as the Pittsburgh Catholic College of the Holy Ghost in October 1878 with an enrollment of 40 students and a faculty of six. In 1911, the college became the first Catholic university-level institution in Pennsylvania. It is the only Spiritan institution of higher education in the world.[citation needed] It is named for an 18th-century governor of New France, Michel-Ange Duquesne de Menneville.