Niagara University was founded in 1856 as the College and Seminary of Our Lady of Angels.  The seminary began with six students and two faculty.  The founders of the University, Vincentians Priests, the Most Rev. John Timon, C.M. and Rev. John J. Lynch, C.M., purchased two adjoining farms, the Vedder and De Veaux farms, on Monteagle Ridge.  Over the next 25 years the College and Seminary grew and prospered producing graduates that entered such fields as the Priesthood, Law and Medicine, Teaching, Journalism and many other walks of life.  Indeed, by the spring of 1863 the College had become so successful that the New York legislature granted a charter empowering the College and Seminary to award degrees to its graduates.

On August 7, 1883, 25 years after its founding, Grover Cleveland, then Governor of New York, gave permission to the College and Seminary to change its name to Niagara University.  The Seminary remained a full and vibrant part of the University community until 1961 when it was moved to Albany, New York. 

The University has evolved over its long history into an institution that offers degree programs in the Arts and Sciences, Business and Teaching, and Travel and Tourism. 

Throughout its long history, Niagara has remained true to the Vincentian principles of commitment to preparing students for the professions and the greater society while remaining committed to the values of its name sake, Saint Vincent de Paul, as well as, to its Catholic heritage.