St Patrick's College is the oldest Catholic boys' secondary school in New Zealand, Founded by Archbishop Francis Redwood SM, St Patrick's opened on June 1, 1885 with nine day-boys and twelve boarders. The College represents one of the earliest educational establishments of the Society of Mary (Marists) the religious congregation whose members accompanied Bishop Jean Baptiste Pompallier to New Zealand in 1838, and who played a prominent role in the establishment of the Catholic church in New Zealand. The first members of staff, Irish Marists who came principally from the Marist College at Dundalk,established a number of Marist colleges such as St Bede's College, Christchurch and St John's College, Hastings in New Zealand. Plans in 1931 envisaged the College moving to a more suitable site at Silverstream in the Hutt Valley, but a high demand for education eventually led to a split: the original establishment continued and the boarding section moved to become St Patrick's College, Silverstream, thus allowing room for the expansion of day-student numbers on the Cambridge Terrace site in central Wellington city. From that time the city college has borne the nickname "St Pat's Town".