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The St. Louis Jesuits Are 'Coming Home' For Final Live Concert

07/11/2019

The St. Louis Jesuits, the influential group of composer-performers who inspired a generation of Catholic liturgical music, will return to ‘where it all started’ for their The St. Louis Jesuits – Coming Home concert on Sunday, Sept. 29, at Powell Hall. The concert will be a final chance to see the group perform live, on-stage.

The St. Louis Jesuits

The St. Louis Jesuits met and began composing liturgical music and songs together as Jesuit scholastics at Saint Louis University in the 1970s. Submitted photo

The group, including composer-performers Dan Schutte, Tim Manion, Bob Dufford S.J., John Foley S.J., and Roc O'Connor S.J., together with the late John Kavanaugh, S.J., met and began composing music together as young Jesuit scholastics in the early 1970s while at Saint Louis University.

The group’s songs, including “One Bread, One Body” and “Earthen Vessels,” have become staples of Catholic liturgies, and the St. Louis Jesuits, as a group, have recorded 35 albums and several anthology collections.

The group reunited to lead SLU alumni, current students, faculty, staff members and Billiken families in song at the University’s bicentennial finale celebration at Chaifetz Arena in November 2018.

About the Concert

The Sept. 29 concert at Powell Hall is expected to be a nostalgic celebration of the five’s most beloved hymns and songs for worship and personal prayer, both as St. Louis Jesuits and as solo artists.

The concert is the group’s opportunity to “get back together with old friends who helped us in our early days and all along the way,” O’Connor said, “and is a way to thank them for all that love and support.”

The St. Louis Jesuits
Songs and music by the St. Louis Jesuits have inspired a generation of Catholic worshippers. Submitted photo

The concert will feature a number of the group’s “old friends,” including the singers and musicians of the St. Francis Xavier College Church Choir, a group featured on several of the St. Louis Jesuits’ albums.

The concert is presented by The Ignatian Spirituality Project (ISP) and all proceeds past expenses will benefit the project. Named after St. Ignatius of Loyola, who co-founded the religious order of priests called the Society of Jesus, the ISP offers men and women who are homeless and in recovery from addiction the opportunity to change their lives through Ignatian spirituality and retreats.

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Learn More About the St. Louis Jesuits


Founded in 1818, Saint Louis University is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious Catholic institutions. Rooted in Jesuit values and its pioneering history as the first university west of the Mississippi River, SLU offers nearly 13,000 students a rigorous, transformative education of the whole person. At the core of the University’s diverse community of scholars is SLU’s service-focused mission, which challenges and prepares students to make the world a better, more just place.