About

Established in 1923 by the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady, the School of Nursing began in conjunction with the establishment of Our Lady of the Lake Sanitarium in the Capitol Lake area of downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The School was an integral part of the new hospital’s program of service to the community.

Located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University is a small, Catholic, not-for-profit institution with a healthcare emphasis. The University offers degrees in nursing, health sciences, humanities, behavioral sciences and natural sciences. The University is sponsored by the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady and is faithful to its mission grounded in Franciscan values. The University is a student-centered academic community committed to the pursuit of truth and common good and devoted to excellence in teaching and learning.

Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University has an extensive and growing tradition of service to the community. From 2009-2014, over 3,883 students completed service-learning courses at the University, dedicating more than 68,000 service hours to communities in 16 parishes throughout central and southern Louisiana. In early 2011, the University was named by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a Carnegie Engaged Campus. In addition to this prestigious Carnegie Foundation classification, the University has been named six times to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. Inclusion on the Honor Roll (which is the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement) was especially significant when the University was most recently featured ‘with Distinction' for the second time.