The story
Saint Leo traces its history to August 10, 1881, when Edmund F. Dunne, a former chief justice of the Arizona Territory, gained control of 100,000 acres in Florida. He established a Catholic colony in an area that is now the city of San Antonio and the town of St. Leo.
To accommodate a number of German-speaking colonists, John Moore, Bishop of the Diocese of St. Augustine, wrote the abbot of Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania to request a German-speaking priest. That request led to the Benedictine monks first arriving in the area. In 1888, Saint Vincent Archabbey transferred control of the colony to Mary Help of Christians Abbey (commonly called Maryhelp) in Belmont, North Carolina.
In February 1889, Leo Haid, Abbot of Maryhelp Abbey, accepted a gift from Edmund Dunne of 36 acres on Lake Jovita for the founding of a Benedictine College. That same month, Benedictine nuns arrived from Allegheny, Pennsylvania.
On March 11, 1889, they founded Holy Name Monastery. Saint Leo College and Saint Leo Abbey were founded on June 4, 1889. St. Leo College, the original name of the institution, opened its doors on September 14, 1890. The first student to arrive was 12 years old. He and six others were enrolled on the first day, and the student body grew to 32 for the 1890–1891 school year. The first five students graduated in June 1893 with Master of Accounts degrees.
In 1898, before it was legal in Florida for black and white students to attend school together, Saint Leo enrolled a black student—Rudolph Antorcha from Cuba. Today, he and the welcoming Benedictines are honored with a sculpture titled A Spirit of Belonging, which was dedicated at University Campus in 2013.
Over the years, the school went through a series of varying focuses and name changes: St. Leo's College initially, then St. Leo Military College (1890–1903), St. Leo College (1903–17), St. Leo College Preparatory School (1917–18), Saint Leo College (1918–20), St. Leo College High School (1920–23), St. Leo Academy (1923–27), Benedictine High School (1927–29), Saint Leo College Preparatory School (1929–64), Saint Leo College (1959–99), and finally Saint Leo University (1999–present). During that time, it served as a military college within three different periods.
Saint Leo College Preparatory School operated from 1929 to 1964. In addition, Saint Leo returned to its college roots in 1959 and opened a junior college, with the first junior college graduates earning their associate degrees in 1961. The monks managed both the junior college and the prep school from 1959 to 1964. The Saint Leo College Prep School athletic teams were known as the Lions, and their colors were purple and gold. The Saint Leo College teams were known as the Monarchs, using green and gold as colors. In 1999, the Saint Leo athletic teams re-adopted the Lions name.
In 2011, Saint Leo University created an anthropomorphic lion mascot named Fritz. The name was a reference to a series of Saint Bernard dogs bearing that name, all owned by Charles Mohr, who served as the first abbot of Saint Leo Abbey from 1902 to 1931.
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The Benedictine sisters at Holy Name Monastery, its neighboring community, closed their Holy Name Academy in 1963 and assisted Saint Leo, which transitioned to a four-year program.
Saint Leo College conferred its first bachelor's degree on April 23, 1967, on 51 men and 13 women. The college was accredited by the Southern Educational Association that November, retroactive to the degree date.
In 1973, the college responded to requests from the armed services to offer degree programs on U.S. military bases. More education centers followed—on military bases, on community college campuses, and at stand-alone facilities—in seven states.
In 1994, the college began to offer the Master of Business Administration and conferred its first MBA degrees in 1996.
In 1998, the university's Center for Online Learning was created, allowing students to take classes online from any location.
On August 24, 1999, Saint Leo College became Saint Leo University.
In 2002, the university expanded its online degree offerings to include the MBA program, enrolling 120 students in its first term. Saint Leo University introduced its first doctoral program, the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA), in 2013.
The university announced plans in July 2021 to merge with Marymount California University, another private Catholic university. The transition was expected to be completed by January 2023. However, plans for the merger fell through after St. Leo University's accreditor rejected its plans to acquire Marymount California University, and Marymount California University closed in August 2022. In February 2023, Saint Leo University closed some of its satellite locations, eliminated 111 faculty/staff positions, cut three degree programs, and phased out six NCAA division II teams, facing continuing enrollment declines and financial issues.
In January 2026, Saint Leo University announced the launch of the Lionova Institute, a new division focused on faith-anchored, technology-enabled education. The Lionova Institute will focus on expanding Saint Leo’s impact through online education, healthcare and nursing pathways, international partnerships, military-aligned education, and workforce-connected learning models. This initiative builds upon the legacy of former Saint Leo president Arthur F. Kirk Jr., who is widely regarded as a pioneer in nonprofit online education.
Since 1959, when the junior college was started, Saint Leo has had 12 presidents:
John I. Leonard (1959–61)
Rev. Stephen Herrmann (1961–68)
Anthony W. Zaitz (1968–70)
Rev. Marion Bowman (1970–71)
Thomas B. Southard (1971–85)
M. Daniel Henry (1985–87)
Msgr. Frank M. Mouch (1987–96)
Arthur F. Kirk Jr. (1997–2015)
William J. Lennox Jr. (2015–18)
Jeffrey D. Senese (2018–22)
Edward Dadez (2022–25)
Jim Burkee (2025–present)
From Wikipedia’s article on Saint Leo University, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5