In Oct 1841, 2 mendicant friars from Saint Augustine's Church in metropolis purchased the 200-acre (81 ha) "Belle Air" estate in Radnor town with the intention of beginning a faculty. The school, that was referred to as the "Augustinian faculty of Vilanova", opened in 1842. However, the metropolis Nativist Riots of 1844 that burned Saint Augustine's Church in metropolis caused monetary difficulties for the Augustinians, and therefore the faculty was enclosed February 1845. the school reopened in 1846 and graduated its firstclass in 1847. In March 1848, the governor of Pennsylvania incorporated the college and gave it the facility to grant degrees. In 1859, the primary academic degree was bestowed on a student.In 1857, the college closed once more because the demand for monks in metropolis prevented adequate staffing, and therefore the crisis of the Panic of 1857 strained the college financially. the college remained closed throughout the war and reopened in Gregorian calendar month 1865; since then it's operated ceaselessly.Its preparation department later enraptured to the Malvern, a city on the most Line, and continues to be go by the order.