Established in 1852 by the Basilian Fathers and federated with the University of Toronto, Canada's greatest research university, St. Michael's offers students of every background membership in a community founded on the Catholic intellectual tradition. Students appreciate its strong academic programs, its caring faculty and staff, and its dynamic student government. As a Catholic university, it is committed to the study of the Christian tradition within a context of faith and to fostering the creative engagement of that tradition with the widest range of academic disciplines as well as with other traditions both religious and secular.