After visiting the novices of the Jesuit USA Central and Southern (UCS) Province in Denver, Superior General Arturo Sosa spent two days in St. Louis to observe the myriad Jesuit ministries in the area. The seat of the UCS Province, St. Louis is also home to the largest number of Jesuits and Jesuit works in the Province, including Saint Louis University, St. Louis University High School, De Smet Jesuit High School, Loyola Academy of St. Louis, White House Jesuit Retreat Center and St. Francis Xavier College Church.

Before it was the center of the UCS Province, St. Louis was the heart of the former Missouri Province of the Society of Jesus. The first Jesuits arrived in St. Louis in 1823, when the town was little more than a village on the Mississippi River, a vital transportation waterway at the center of the United States. The Jesuit missionaries of the mid-19^th century established St. Louis as the launching pad for the westward expansion of Catholicism in America. It’s no surprise, then, that the city became the geographical and spiritual center of the Missouri Province.

For the Society of Jesus, St. Louis offered both a stable population to take advantage of Jesuit educational institutions and ministries, as well as central access to the rest of the United States. This advantage would shape the Province, its institutions and the generations of Jesuits who lived and worked in St. Louis.

The Missouri Province was made up not only of missionaries who brought Christianity and the Society of Jesus to other parts of the USA. There were also Jesuits who stayed. For decades, a Jesuit could enter the Society of Jesus at the novitiate located in nearby Florissant, Missouri, study at Saint Louis University, serve at one of the area’s schools, parishes or retreat houses, and then retire from active ministry all within a short distance. Jesuits trained, taught, and ministered in these institutions for decades, often spending the majority of their active lives in the same region where they had first entered the order. As a result, the rhythms of Jesuit life – prayer, teaching, pastoral work and community – were deeply intertwined with the social and religious history of greater St. Louis.

Because of this close “Jesuit Circle of Life”, the former Missouri Province developed a distinctive sense of continuity and rootedness: men who entered, were trained, lived, and died near St. Louis formed a living chain across generations. Their shared geography helped create a strong provincial identity, one in which place, memory and mission were inseparable from the history of the Society of Jesus in the American Midwest.

In 2014, as part of a national reconfiguration of Jesuit provinces, the Missouri Province joined with the New Orleans Province to create the USA Central and Southern Province.

During his visit, Fr General met with senior Jesuits now living in a new community not far from the novitiate they entered decades ago, as well as Jesuits in formation from around the United States, Canada and the Caribbean who are studying at Saint Louis University, looking ahead to a lifetime of ministry. Students at Loyola Academy of St. Louis, a school for underserved upper-elementary and middle school boys, shared with him why they value their Jesuit education. And Jesuits and lay partners from different apostolates across the area related how they collaborate for their shared mission.

The Jesuits of St. Louis hope that after a two-day, whirlwind visit, Fr General will see how the history and character of the region has shaped the Province for more than 200 years: a time capsule of grace and mission now filled with Jesuits who are still called to serve as missionaries of the Gospel in a variety of educational, parish, retreat and social ministries.