St. Joseph, Minnesota, United States

🇺🇸 St. Joseph is a city in Stearns County, Minnesota, United States. It is home to the College of Saint Benedict.

St. Joseph is part of the St. Cloud Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History Originally home to the native Ojibwe, Winnebago, Sioux, and Dakota peoples, St. Joseph was laid out in 1855, and named by European Americans after a local church. St. Joseph was incorporated in 1890. (The unincorporated Florida community of St. Joseph, Florida, was named after the Minnesota city.)

St. Joseph contains three properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places: the 1869 Church of St. Joseph, the 1918 First State Bank building, and a district of historic buildings at Saint Benedict's Monastery and College built from 1882 to the 1920s.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 3.89 square miles (10.08 km²), all land.

Stearns County Road 75 serves as a main route in the community. Other routes include County Roads 2, 3, 121, 133, and 134. Interstate 94/US Highway 52 is nearby.

Some of the city's major landmarks include St. Joseph Catholic Church, St. Benedict's Monastery, and the College of St. Benedict. The College of Saint Benedict is an all-women's Catholic college, and the complex is noted in the downtown area for the high spire of St. Joseph's Church, and the rotunda and dome of the Monastery and College Sacred Heart Chapel. The architecture is different from other buildings and the major structures are visible from miles away.

Education: University The College of Saint Benedict (CSB) is a four-year, private liberal arts college and the nation's only Benedictine college for women. The college opened in 1913, with six students enrolled, and grew out of St. Benedict's Academy, which was founded by Saint Benedict's Monastery in 1889. The Benedictine community incorporated CSB in 1961. The college is also connected to Saint John's University (SJU), which is a male-only university in Collegeville Township, Minnesota.

Events In May of each year since 2008, hundreds of runners line up in Holdingford, Minnesota and run the 26.2 mile Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon route to the finish line in St. Joseph.

The College of St. Benedict is home to the Claire Lynch Gym, where the NCAA DIII Bennies complete in volleyball and basketball against regional MIAC teams. The outdoor athletic complex is the Bennies home for hosting MIAC soccer and softball games.

Since 2006, the Church of St. Joseph has hosted the annual Joetown Rocks music concert, which in recent years has seen annual turnouts of several thousand people. The outdoor concert traditionally occurs in conjunction with Independence Day, and has featured headlining acts such as the Killer Vees, stars from the original Broadway cast of Jersey Boys, and the Fabulous Armadillos.