Final touches on the four-story, 120,000-square-foot St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary are being made in anticipation of the hundreds of people who will tour the multi-winged building during a public inauguration and blessing on Friday, Nov. 4.

The event, which is free and open to the community, will be marked by a 10 a.m. mass, a luncheon and the public’s only opportunity to tour the building.

The celebration of the years-long $35 million project, whose phase one includes construction of the seminary and administration building, will draw bishops and priests from across the globe, said Father Steven Reuter, the project’s manager.

“If all goes well,” Reuter said, the society should have its occupancy permit in the next week. “We have a number of employees here (who) are setting tile and doing trim. So, a lot of the detailed trim work will gradually take place as money comes in over the next two years.”

The society’s seminary comes to Buckingham from Winona, Minn.

According to its website, the St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary is a house of studies of the Society of St. Pius X, established in the United States in 1973, for the formation of Roman Catholic priests according to the traditional teaching of the church. “St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary draws from the greatest riches of the 2,000-year history of the church in the formation of her priests,” the website reads.

While the interior of the 1,500 square foot administration building won’t be finished on Nov. 4, the outside will, Reuter said.

“Where we’re walking right now is the place of the future church, and so, the future church will tie in all these buildings together,” he said, walking between the administration building and the seminary’s main building, which will house a temporary chapel, offices and rooms for seminarians. “That phase, which is phase two, hasn’t started yet.”

Inside, Reuter admitted the progress is hard to believe.

“It’s stunning how beautiful it’s turned out. We’ve used all natural products. We have a slate roof, brick from North Carolina and, as you see, all the floors are stone,” he said.

Numerous construction workers remain on site laying tile, cleaning windows and woodworking on the building’s ground floor.

At the project’s height, 150 people worked daily on site, Rueter said.

“Everything’s very solid. You only have to do it once,” he said of the materials used in construction.

A vast majority of the detail work, Rueter said, has been performed by hand, including the staircase railings and banisters, wood trim and pews for the temporary chapel. The building dons 60,000 square feet of stone tile.

“We’re building (something) to last forever,” Rueter said, adding that a building of the seminary’s style has not been built in the United States for many years.

The building can house up to 121 seminarians, 10 professors and five guests.

“I think that the fact that you really see providence,” Reuter said of his satisfaction with the project. “God has allowed us, in spite of the economic difficulties, we’ve had all these generous people to help us (through) both donations and workers from other countries to make it happen.”

Twenty-five seminarians, along with brothers of the seminary, have been on site, volunteering their time to make the inauguration a success.

“You can never appreciate how much work goes into something like this and all the people that have to be involved until you do it,” Reuter said.

Lunch, for which registration is required, is at 12:30 p.m., following a 2 p.m. blessing of the buildings and guided tours at 2:30 p.m.

The seminary, off Ranson Road, is at 1208 Archbishop Lefebvre Ave., Dillwyn.