Donald Sanborn

Donald Sanborn was born into a Roman Catholic family in Flushing, Queens, New York, United States.[5] There, he attended Catholic elementary and high schools.[6] In 1967, he entered the seminary college for the Diocese of Brooklyn, where, in 1971, he graduated cum laude, having majored in classical languages.[7]

In the same year, Sanborn dropped out of the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception,[5] whose training he considered modernist, and entered the International Seminary of Saint Pius X, Écône, Switzerland, of the traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), becoming one of first seminarians of the newly founded society.[7]

On 29 June 1975, in Écône, he was ordained a priest by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre of the SSPX.[8] Canonical recognition of the SSPX had been withdrawn by the local Roman Catholic bishop in May 1975, one month prior to his ordination, and this move would later be upheld by the Vatican.[9]

By 1976, Father Sanborn was offering the traditional Latin Mass for Catholics on Long Island, New York, United States, together with Father Clarence Kelly.[5][10][11]

In 1977, Sanborn was teaching at a seminary of the SSPX which was then called Saint Joseph's House of Studies, in Armada, Michigan, United States.[12] Later in the same year, he was appointed Rector of the Seminary.[13][14]

He subsequently began earnestly searching for newer, larger premises. Sanborn launched a fundraising campaign and eventually succeeded in acquiring a former Jesuit retreat house; this would later be renamed Saint Thomas Aquinas Seminary (still operating under the SSPX as of 2019).

Lefebvre directed the SSPX's American priests to follow the 1962 liturgical books. Sanborn and eight other American priests refused to do these. These nine priests accused Lefebvre of being insufficiently traditionalist.[15][16][17] According to Sanborn, Lefebvre was imposing these liturgical and disciplinary changes in view of a reconciliation with the Vatican.[18]

On April 27, 1983, these nine priests, along with some seminarians who were sympathetic to them, were promptly expelled from the SSPX by Lefebvre, for their refusal to use the 1962 Missal and for other reasons, such as their resistance to Lefebvre's order that priests of the SSPX must accept the decrees of nullity handed down by diocesan marriage tribunals, and their disapproval of the SSPX's policy of accepting into the society new members who had been ordained to the priesthood according to the revised sacramental rites of Paul VI. Almost immediately, these nine priests formed the Society of Saint Pius V (SSPV).[19]

In 1984, Sanborn established the independent Blessed Sacrament Chapel in Martinez, California, United States. In 1991, Sanborn left the SSPV,[20] in part, like Father Daniel Dolan and Father Anthony Cekada (who both left in 1989), due to the Superior General Kelly's rejection of the validity of sedevacantist bishops consecrated by or in the lineage of Bishop Ngô Đình Thục.

In 1993, Sanborn founded the sedevacantist Roman Catholic Institute (RCI).

In 1995, Sanborn founded the sedevacantist Most Holy Trinity Seminary in Spring Lake, Florida, United States. Prior to his episcopal consecration later in 2002, the seminary's graduates were ordained by Dolan,[20] who was consecrated a bishop in 1993. In 2005, the seminary was relocated to Brooksville, Florida.[6][15][21][22][23] The seminary is one of very few fully functioning sedevacantist seminaries in the world.

On June 19, 2002, in Detroit, Michigan, Sanborn was consecrated a bishop by the American sedeprivationist bishop Robert McKenna, O.P.,[4][24] of the Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement.

Sanborn served as pastor of the Queen of All Saints Chapel in Brooksville, Florida.[22][25]

On February 22, 2018, Sanborn consecrated his intended successor, Father Joseph Selway, as a bishop, with Bishop Geert Stuyver of the Istituto Mater Boni Consilii (Verrua Savoia, Turin, Italy) and Bishop Daniel Dolan (of West Chester, Ohio) assisting as co-consecrators.[26][27][28]

Sanborn currently serves as the Superior General of the Roman Catholic Institute and as the rector of the Most Holy Trinity Seminary in Brooksville, Florida. He currently offers Masses in the Most Holy Trinity Seminary and in Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church.

He frequently visits Mass centers in the United States and occasionally travels to Europe, meeting with sedevacantist clergy and laity,[7] offering the traditional Latin Mass, and administering the sacrament of Confirmation. He holds conferences in the United States and in Europe promoting sedevacantism.

He is fluent in Latin, French, and Italian, and has a working knowledge of Greek, German and Spanish.[7]