Saint John's University in Collegeville Minnesota
To say the campus at Saint John's University in Collegeville Minnesota is beautiful would be a serious understatement. The large campus property with its mature trees, rolling hills and wetland areas is included in the Avon Hills Important Bird area.
Established in 1857 St. John's University is a private university located off I94 just west of St. Cloud. It is an excellent place to get an education even being placed on the Best Colleges list for 2011 from U.S. News & World Report.
SJU has many notable alumni, from the founding members of Tonic Sol Fa to scientists and a Senator, but the alumni who most caught my attention is Tom Burnett, one of the heros of Flight 93.
The original Abbey Church is now the Great Hall. The new Abbey Church is a striking feature on the campus from the honeycomb patterned walls to the architectural high point, the bell tower. The Abbey church as well as many other worthwhile projects on campus have been supported by the making of Jonnie Bread. The course grain bread has been made at St. John's since 1856.
St. John's sister school, St Benedict's, is a few miles away in St Joseph. The 2 campuses cover a total 3,300 acres combined in a very scenic area of Stearns County Minnesota.
The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library on the St. John's University campus is home to the worlds largest collection of Manuscript images. It is an incredible resource with over 100,000 images in the collection. The Manuscript holdings in the library are divided into 2 categories, Western Manuscripts and Eastern Christian Manuscripts. The impressive collection of sculpture, prints, artifacts and paintings continue to grow year after year and recently a large milestone was passed with the additions to their digital collection crossing the 1 million mark.
My favorite feature of the campus is Sagatagan Lake on the south side. There is an old chapel on the point, and the lake is enveloped in the woods, and open for public fishing (non motorized) winter and summer. This is as peaceful a spot as you'll find, amid acres of rolling hills and mature trees.
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