An elite university at the heart of Silicon Valley has seen a threefold increase in conversions to the Catholic Church this past year.

The Catholic chaplaincy to the university is run by Dominican fathers.

Father Bart Hutcherson OP, says the students are drawn to the beauty of traditional forms of worship — age-old hymns played on a pipe organ, Latin prayers and the ornate Byzantine details at Stanford Memorial Church.

He added that the high-achieving students are often first attracted to Catholicism on an intellectual basis, educating themselves on church’s history and centuries-old philosophical traditions before taking the plunge.

Six hundred Stanford students packed into a recent Saturday afternoon Mass of the Holy Spirit — hundreds more than Hutcherson would have expected just a couple of years ago.