St. Louis Jesuits

The St. Louis Jesuits, a group of Catholic composers who popularized a contemporary style of church music through their compositions and recordings in the 1970s and 1980s. The group, made up of Jesuit seminarians at St. Louis University, originally used acoustic guitars and pop-style melodies and rhythms to set biblical and other religious texts to music sung in English as a result of the liturgical reforms initiated by Vatican II.

Without intent, a groundswell of popularity took place when students, seminarians and women religious took stenciled mimeographed copies of their new music back to their communities where it became known as music by "The St. Louis Jesuits".

History

Before finishing their studies and leaving St. Louis University, the seminarians decided to collect and make a recording of their music so it would be available to others. Some of the music was recorded in the basement of Fusz Memorial Chapel, the rest at a local studio. This first collection of 58 songs, some dating back as early as 1964, was called, Neither Silver nor Gold. Later, this recording was issued as a four-cassette/LP set in 1974 by North American Liturgy Resources. It has since been remastered into a two CD set by OCP Publications.

Over time, Bob Dufford, S.J., John Foley, S.J., Tim Manion, Roc O'Connor, S.J., and Dan Schutte, and their music became known as the St. Louis Jesuits. At the time, all were members of the Society of Jesus pursuing different vocations and...
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