History

The Dominican House of Studies is the location of two related entities: the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception and the Priory of the Immaculate Conception. Originally established in 1834 in Somerset, Ohio, as the first General Studium of the Dominican Order in the United States, the Dominican House of Studies moved to its present site in Washington, D.C. in 1905, shortly after the foundation of The Catholic University of America, thus conforming to the historic Dominican practice of establishing Studia in major university settings. In 1941 the Sacred Congregation of Seminaries and Universities of the Apostolic See designated the Dominican House of Studies an Ecclesiastical Faculty of Theology with authorization to confer ecclesiastical degrees.

The Dominican residence, the Priory of the Immaculate Conception, is home to approximately fifty Dominican friars, most of whom are student brothers in initial formation. The priory community has as its main responsibility the academic, pastoral, and spiritual formation of these Dominican student brothers preparing for Solemn Profession and for Holy Orders. Dominican Friars resident here also serve as faculty members at the Catholic University of America, as chaplains at the Armed Forces Retirement Home, and as preachers and spiritual directors in the Washington area.