, a
Roman Catholic Secondary Day School for boys, is located in suburban
St. Louis ,
Missouri . The school was established in
1955 , at the invitation of prominent St. Louis Catholics, by monks of the
Benedictine Ampleforth Abbey in
York ,
England . The corresponding Priory of Saints Louis and Mary, a Benedictine
Monastery , was established at the same time. The Priory, which is a member of the
English Benedictine Congregation , became independent of
Ampleforth in
1973 , and was elevated to an
Abbey in
1989 .
The founding Prior (1955-1967) was the noted author, monastic leader and former titular Abbot of
Westminster Reverend
Columba Cary-Elwes .
Enrolling over 300 boys in grades seven through twelve, the Priory School offers a rigorous education shaped by the ancient Benedictine tradition's
Christian Humanism , with particular attention to Roman Catholic theology, classical and modern foreign languages, English and American literature, mathematics and the natural sciences, history, computer science, and the fine arts. Its graduates attend highly competitive colleges throughout the United States and Canada.
The founding headmaster was scholar and author Rev. Timothy Horner, O.S.B. He was succeeded by Rev. Paul Kidner, O.S.B., who arrived shortly after the founding. He was in turn succeeded by Rev. Finbarr Dowling, O.S.B. Before being elected to serve as Abbot of the Saint Louis Abbey, former Rhodes Scholar and university professor, Fr. Thomas Frerking, O.S.B. guided the school in the mid 1990s.
Rev. Gregory Mohrman, O.S.B., Class of 1976, the first alumnus to join the monastery, became headmaster in 1995, and held the position for ten years. He was replaced by Rev. Michael Brunner, O.S.B., the school's former assistant headmaster.
The school's sports mascot is the Rebels. A Confederate flag was at times flown outside of the school, but was taken down as the result of controversy surrounding its implied symbolism. In the fall of 2005, the Priory varsity soccer team became the first in this sport in Missouri's high school sports history, and the first since state titles were officially sanctioned by the Missouri State High School Athletics Association, to compete for a full season with no losses or ties. Led by All-American Jimmy Holmes, who scored 43 goals en-route to the best metro-player award, the soccer Rebels ended the season with a perfect 26-0 record, winning the state Class 2 title.
One of the school's major distinctions is the award-winning Abbey Church (1962), also known as the Church of St. Mary and St. Louis. It was designed by
Gyo Obata of
Hellmuth, Obata And Kassabaum , with the famous Italian architect and engineer
Pier Luigi Nervi serving as consultant. It was an important landmark and name-making project for HOK, now the world's largest archictectural practice (according to the 2006 edition of the ''BD World Architecture 200''). The Church's circular facade consists of three tiers of whitewashed, thin-poured concrete parabolic arches, the top one forming a bell-tower; the arches appear to float upwards from their grassy base. They are faced with dark insulated-fiberglass polyester window walls which create a meditative translucency when viewed from within.
The history of the monastery and school was chronicled by founding monk and original headmaster Fr. Timothy Horner, O.S.B. in his ''In Good Soil: The Founding of the Saint Louis Priory School 1954-1973'' (year published). In the historical yet often jovial work, written with his characteristically brilliant and dry style, Fr. Horner described the initial contact with the interested St. Louis Catholic laymen, and brought readers through the difficult but in his mind ultimately rewarding process of founding a new school in the English Benedictine Congregation.
Football - 1974; Hockey - 2004; Cross Country - 2004; Soccer - 2005
Bill Daake, Basketball, 1969 (later attended Princeton University)
Jim Holmes, likes to lick shlongs Soccer, 2005 (will attend Saint Louis University)
