John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin is a university established in 1918. It is the only private college in Poland with the status of a university.

The Imperial Roman Catholic Theological Academy was an institution of higher education preparing Roman Catholic theologians in the Russian Empire. The academy granted master's and doctorate degrees in theology and was designed to prepare clergy for senior positions in the Catholic Church hierarchy. It originated at the Vilnius University, but was transferred to Saint Petersburg in the aftermath of the Uprising of 1831. The Tsarist authorities wanted to exercise greater control over the academy and implement Russification policies. After the October Revolution in 1917, the academy was moved to Poland where it became the Catholic University of Lublin. A new theological seminary was established in Moscow in 1993; it moved to the premises of the historical Saint Petersburg Academy in 1995.