The Mission of Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University is to educate and form Franciscan servant leaders of all faiths.
We honor and preserve the legacy of our founders by preparing highly skilled professionals, integrated thinkers, and faith-filled citizens. Inspired by the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady to be a living witness to Jesus Christ and the Gospel message, the University is in communion with the teachings of the Catholic Church.
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. In collaboration with university-community partners, students are empowered to serve those most in need in the community through Service-Learning experiences. Since the transition to FranU, in the 2015-2016 academic year, over 5894 students have completed service-learning courses, dedicating more than 156,422 service hours to communities in 17 parishes through central and southern Louisiana. This translates to an economic impact of $3,785,074.6 for the local communities we are privileged to serve. Additionally, from 2010-2026, the university was named by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a Community 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.