Catholic Universities in the Americas

The First Schools in Spanish America

The first school of higher learning established in Mexico, was founded by the Franciscans at Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco only fifteen years after Cortez conquered Mexico. It was intended to teach the sons of Native Aztecs, the subjects of Religion, reading, writing, Latin, rhetoric, philosophy, music and medicine. Although graduates of this school were very important in helping the Franciscan scholars do historical and linguistic research on the history and language of the Aztecs, the college eventually floundered due to lack of financial support from later governors.

Although the "College of Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco eventually floundered due to lack of support by later governors, its indigenous scholars contributed to the most important existing work of Aztec scholarship, the "Florentine Codex". a massive text including 1200 pages and 2000 illustrations by native artists. The scholars who worked on this text also did a great deal of linguistic work to preserve and translate the Nahuatl language.

By 1550 there were a number of schools in Mexico teaching the Trivium, but students had to go to Europe for graduate level instruction. To address this problem the colonial government made plans to establish a local university.

Universities Founded in Spanish America

• Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, Mexico City (1551)
  The first University founded in North America was established thirty years after Cortez conquered Mexico. The (Royal and Pontifical) University of Mexico was masterminded Mendoza, the first Viceroy of Mexico, and was associated with the University of Salamanca in Spain. From an early date the university had facilities in Theology, Civil Law, Canon Law, Arts, Medicine, and Scriptures. In addition it had a department dedicated to preserving and translating native Languages of the region. It was the leading University in Mexico until it was closed by anti-Catholic (Freemason) Revolutionary Republican governments, first in 1835 and permanently in 1863.
• University of St. Nicholas Obispo, Valladolid (Morelia) (1540)
  The College of St. Nicholas Obispo was established as a school of higher education ten years before the founding of the University of Mexico. It was not recognized as a University until it was taken over by the Jesuits in 1574. Like all Universities in Mexico, it was closed by Revolutionary governments, but later re-opened as a secular, government controlled institution.
• National University of San Marcos, Lima (551)
  The Oldest University in South America was established in Lima, the Capital city of the Viceroyalty of Peru, in 1551. It was originally under control of the Dominicans, and for centuries was the most influential University in South America. Instead of being closed by a Revolutionary government, however, it was gradually secularized.
• St. Thomas Aquinas University, Columbia (Dominican, 1580)
• National University of Cordoba, Argentina (Jesuit, 1613)

Universities Founded in French Canada/New Orleans

• University of Laval, Quebec (1663)
• St. Paul University, Ottawa (Pontifical, 1848)
• King's University (Christ the King's College, Ontario (Diocesan, 1954)

American Catholic Univieristies

• Georgetown, Washington D.C. (Jesuit, 1789)
• Catholic University, Washington D.C. (Pontifical, 1887)
• Boston College, Boston (Jesuit, 1863)
• Marquette, Milwaukee (Jesuit, 1881)
• Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana (Holy Cross, 1842)
• FrUniversity of Stuebenville, Ohio (Franciscan, 1942)
• Benedictine College, Kansas (Benedictine, 1858)