Exploring More Than 200 Years of Jesuit Legacy at SLU
In the inaugural episode of “1818: A Saint Louis University Alumni Podcast,” co-hosts Tony Minor (A&S ‘03) and Meg Connolly (A&S ‘90, GRAD ‘92) delve into SLU's more than 200-year history with the Society of Jesus, commonly known as the Jesuits.
About Episode One
The episode begins with Connolly speaking to alumnus Father Roc O'Connor, musician and member of the beloved St. Louis Jesuits, known worldwide for Catholic liturgical songs like 'Be Not Afraid,' 'Here I Am Lord,' and 'City of God.'
The composers had humble beginnings at SLU, meeting casually as students creating music together. One summer, North American Liturgy Resources contacted several of them about publishing their music. O’Connor said they ended up singing and recording more than 30 songs in just about 10 days.
Later on, the St. Louis Jesuits played to a sold-out crowd at Powell Hall in St. Louis.
“I get goosebumps thinking about that concert at Powell Hall,” O’Connor said. “When we sang together, it was something greater than the sum of the parts.”
Inside the Roundtable Discussion
Also in this episode, Connolly and Minor lead a round table discussion with alumni David Suwalsky, S.J., Ph.D., SLU's vice president for mission and identity, and David Miros, Ph.D., director of the Jesuit Archives and Research Center.
Together, they explore Jesuit contributions to SLU and St. Louis — touching on notable figures, pivotal moments such as the cholera epidemic, and the ongoing preservation of Jesuit history. Miros said Jesuits throughout time Jesuits have been called to the needs of the day.
Intellectual frontiers in the 19th century would have included the sciences, leading Jesuits to study at places like Johns Hopkins University, University of California Berkeley and elsewhere to engage in the questions of the day with others studying those areas, he said.
“Jesuits take seriously the idea of mission and going to those frontiers,” Miros said. “Those frontiers can be intellectual frontiers, they can be physical frontiers.”
Listen to “1818: A Saint Louis University Alumni Podcast” to hear the full conversation.