Benedictine College is a co-educational university in Atchison, Kansas, founded in 1971 by the merger of St. Benedict's College (established in 1858) for men and Mount St. Scholastica College (established in 1923) for women. It is a Roman Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts, and residential college located on bluffs overlooking the Missouri River, northwest of Kansas City, Missouri. Benedictine is one of a number of U.S. Benedictine colleges, and is sponsored by St. Benedict's Abbey and Mount St. Scholastica Monastery. The abbey has a current population of some thirty-five monks, while the monastery numbers around 153 sisters. The predecessors for the modern university were Mount St. Scholastica College, an all-women's campus named for Benedict of Nursia's twin sister Scholastica, and St. Benedict's College, an all-men's campus named for Benedict of Nursia, founder of modern western monasticism. In 1970, Fr. Alcuin Hemmen, OSB, president of St. Benedict's College, announced that St. Benedict's would become a co-educational college, causing Sr. Mary Noel Walter, OSB, president of Mount St. Scholastica College to organize discussion of a merger of the two colleges.