Donald Sanborn

Donald Sanborn was born into a Roman Catholic family in Flushing, Queens, New York.[7] There he attended Catholic elementary and high schools.[8] He became interested in the Catholic priesthood and entered the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception, but subsequently dropped out.[7]

Becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the effects of the reforms following the Second Vatican Council, he entered the traditionalist SSPX seminary in Ecône, Switzerland. He was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1975.[9] By 1976 Sanborn was a member of the Society of St. Pius X celebrating the traditional Mass for Catholics on Long Island, New York, together with Father Clarence Kelly.[10][7][11]

1977 found Sanborn teaching at what was then called the SSPX's St. Joseph's House of Studies, in Armada, Michigan.[12] Later in 1977 he was appointed Rector of the Seminary.[13][14] He subsequently began earnestly searching for newer, larger premises in order to accommodate the growing number of seminarians. Sanborn launched a fundraising campaign and eventually succeeded in acquiring a former Jesuit retreat house; this would later be renamed St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary (still operating under the SSPX as of 2019).

In 1983, he was one of nine American priests who broke ties with Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, accusing him of being insufficiently traditionalist.[15][16][17] Other priests in the group of nine included Anthony Cekada and Daniel Dolan.[18]

Sanborn founded the sedevacantist Most Holy Trinity Seminary in Spring Lake, Florida in 1995, which in 2005 was relocated to Brooksville, Florida, and continues to serve as the Seminary's rector as of January 2019.[15][19][20][8][21] Most Holy Trinity Seminary is one of very few fully functioning sedevacantist seminaries in the world, and Sanborn frequently travels to Europe and around the United States holding conferences promoting sedevacantism.^{[citation needed]}

Sanborn has served as pastor of the independent Queen of All Saints Chapel in Brooksville, Florida.[20][22]

The Roman Catholic priest and sedevacantist bishop Robert McKenna OP consecrated Sanborn as a bishop in 2002.[4] On February 22, 2018, on the Feast of the See of St. Peter at Antioch, Sanborn consecrated Joseph Selway as a bishop, with Geert Stuyver from the Mater Boni Consilii Institute and Daniel Dolan assisting as co-consecrators.[23]