Patrick Deneen 
Birth Date
October 13, 1997
Parish Location
St. Patrick of Merna, Bloomington
Year entered the Seminary/Class of
Entered in 2020, Class of 2026
Studying at
Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, Emmitsburg, MD
Why did you become a seminarian?
Before I started discerning the priesthood, I was planning to go to medical school. But in 2018, when I was serving with the Missionaries of Charity on a mission trip to Kolkata, a talk on discernment by a priest from Spain led me to realize that the priesthood (rather than biological fatherhood and medicine) may be how God wants to satisfy my desire to radically love and serve the Church and the world.
Before you entered the seminary, what were you doing?
I graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2020, majoring in African American and Diaspora Studies and Earth and Environmental Sciences.
An interesting fact about you
My favorite books are Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson and The Power of Silence by Robert Cardinal Sarah and Nicolas Diat, and in my spare time I enjoy lifting weights and playing hurling and Gaelic football, traditional sports from my mother’s home country, Ireland.