They Came to Georgetown: The French Sulpicians Georgetown
Magazine: July, 1977 by George M. Barringer In its first two
decades, Georgetown drew heavily on the abilities—and
availability—of French Sulpician priests and seminarians.
(Sulpicians were members of the Society of Saint-Sulpice,
founded in 1642 primarily for the purpose of training priests to
administer seminaries and to engage in pastoral work.-Ed.) Led
by Fr. Francois Charles Nagot, the first band of Sulpicians came
to Baltimore in 1791 to open a seminary for the Diocese of
Baltimore and to establish a haven for their society in the
event of religious persecution in France. Georgetown College was
to supply candidates for the priesthood to the seminary in
Baltimore. As it turned out, by 1801 only one candidate, Michael
Cuddy, had gone from Georgetown to the seminary; but the college
had profited greatly from the presence of the Sulpicians as
administrators and teachers. And the Sulpicians, perceiving
their original mission as a failure, were contemp