 St. Mary College in Emmitsburg, Maryland briefly, before graduating in 1859 from Mount St. Mary's Seminary of the West in Cincinnati.His uncle, Martin John Spalding, was bishop of Louisville, and arranged for him to attend the American College of the Immaculate Conception in Louvain, Belgium.Following his ordination on December 19, 1863, in Louvain, the twenty-three year old Spalding continued his studies as the Belgian Pontifical College in Rome.