Holy Apostles College and Seminary was founded in 1956 on a 40-acre (160,000 m²) property in Cromwell, Connecticut, 13 miles (21 km) south of Hartford, by the Very Reverend Eusebe M. Menard, O.F.M., to provide a program of education and formation for men intending to enter the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church. Holy Apostles was then a college level, preparatory seminary, which Father Menard entrusted to the Missionaries of the Holy Apostles.