Annunciation House
Annunciation House is an intentional Catholic learning community for first-year students at Saint Louis University, created by the Catholic Studies Center in close partnership with Residence Life.
Students live together in Marguerite Hall, take special sections of required first-year
courses, and engage in formative activities both in the residence and at the Catholic
Studies Center nearby. Annunciation House is open to students of all majors and those
still deciding what to study. What unites them all is a desire to live their faith
more deeply and to do so as part of a vibrant Catholic community that is actively
engaged in the life of the broader campus.
Students who have been admitted to Saint Louis University are eligible to apply for
a place in Annunciation House for the 2025-2026 academic year. Once you've received
your offer of admission, you may submit an application for Annunciation House.
Activities
The Catholic Church refers to the home as the “ecclesia domestica,” the domestic church.
It is in the home above all where the cultural and spiritual riches of the faith are
learned, transmitted, and personally appropriated. At Annunciation House, students
hone their knowledge and practice of these traditions in their own home, discovering
for themselves what it means to live as a “contemplative in action.”
In addition to their involvement in the broader Catholic Studies community, members
of Annunciation House engage in regular devotional and spiritual practices in the
residence hall: the Ignatian Examen, spiritual conversation, guided meditation, recitation
of the Rosary, and Ignatian discernment of spirits.
One evening per month, a faculty member from Catholic Studies also joins the students in the residence hall to facilitate intellectual engagement in the setting of the home. Together, they read an important text from the Catholic intellectual tradition and discuss it. In addition to conversation about the text itself, students reflect on the role of intellectual formation in their overall formation as well as the role of shared intellectual discovery in their friendships.
Working in teams under the direction of peer mentors, the members of the learning community also take turns planning one event each month focused on helping the community build bonds of Christian friendship through edifying recreation. These activities include nature hikes, celebrations of special feast days, screenings of edifying films and live readings of Catholic poetry.
Students also have opportunities to make a local pilgrimage to sites such as the tomb of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne in St. Charles, Missouri, the Shrine of St. Joseph, the Shrine of St. Ferdinand, and the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis.
Why 'Annunciation'?
The Annunciation is the mystery of God’s entry into the world. The angel Gabriel is sent by God to announce to Mary that she will be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and thus give birth to the Son of God in the flesh. It is the first mystery of the Rosary because it is the first mystery in the unfolding of salvation history. It is thus particularly appropriate for a learning community for first-year students, who are at the beginning of their time at Saint Louis University. When we pray with the mystery of the Annunciation, we contemplate how God sets things in motion: quietly, in an unseen moment inside of a home, but already with a sense of the great things to come as the full riches of God’s grace unfold.