Saint Paul University (French: Université Saint-Paul) is a Catholic Pontifical university federated with the University of Ottawa. It is located on Main Street in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and is entrusted to the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The enabling legislation is a civil charter passed by the government of the then-Province of Canada in August 1866, and a pontifical declaration promulgated by Pope Leo XIII on 5 February 1889. Like the University of Ottawa, Saint Paul University is a fully bilingual institution, offering instruction in English and French.

History

In 1848, Joseph-Bruno Guigues, the first bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Ottawa, established the College of Bytown. In 1856, the College was officially entrusted to the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and, in 1866, it was renamed the College of Ottawa. The institution would later rewrite its pontifical charter in keeping with the Apostolic Constitution of Pope Pius XI, and also rewrote its civil charter around the same time. Its rewritten civil charter was approved by the Government of Ontario in 1933, when it was officially renamed the University of Ottawa, and its revised pontifical charter was approved by the Holy See in 1934. On July 1, 1965, by an act of the Ontario Legislature, the institution previously known as the University of Ottawa was renamed Saint Paul University, which retained its civil and pontifical charters, while a new corporate body, to be known as the University of Ottawa, was created to inherit the university's civil faculties.

Although the government wished to preserve the university's Christian character, it was felt that a separate institution would better fulfill the needs of the city's Catholic community. The two universities became federated, and while Saint Paul University retains the authority to grant its own degrees, it reserves the right to jointly award degrees with the Senate of the University of Ottawa.