About
Loyola University Chicago's Jesuit Heritage Research Center (JHRC) has been founded to facilitate Jesuit presence at the university as well as advanced scholarship on the history and mission of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).
Our Mission
The mission of the JHRC is threefold:
1. Facilitation of Jesuit presence at Loyola University Chicago
Loyola has enjoyed the continuous presence of Jesuits since its founding as St. Ignatius College on Chicago’s Near West Side in 1870 and its reincorporation as Loyola University Chicago and relocation to the North Side Lake Shore campus in 1906.
As this ongoing Jesuit presence continues into the future, the JHRC works to facilitate bringing Jesuits to campus from across the Jesuit Global Network of Schools and Universities.
Visiting Jesuit scholars and instructors will benefit from Chicago’s numerous intellectual and cultural riches including research and educational institutions. In turn, these visiting Jesuits enrich the campus—by teaching courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels; by leading scholarly conversations on campus; and by offering presentations open to the public in the greater Chicago area.
2. Expanding knowledge and awareness of Loyola Chicago’s Jesuit heritage and identity
Working in coordination with Loyola’s University Archives & Special Collections, the JHRC aims at facilitating greater awareness—locally, nationally, and internationally—of the university’s connection with nearly five centuries of Jesuit history.
This heritage includes the eccentric polymath Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680); the “world map” of Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) at the Chinese Imperial Court; and the voluminous Jesuit Relations sent to France as annual reports by French missionaries in North America.
It also includes the maps produced by Pierre-Jean de Smet (1801-1873); the institutional foundations (including Loyola) of de Smet’s protégé and fellow Low Countries émigré, Arnold J. Damen (1815-1890); and the many Jesuit educational institutions founded by Jesuit immigrants to the United States in service of immigrant populations.
And finally, it includes numerous Jesuits during the last hundred years—including the French Jesuits of the Christian Witness resistance to Nazism; Claude Heithaus (1898-1976) and the Markoe brothers, John (1890-1967) and William (1892-1969); the paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955); and Ignacio Ellacuría (1930-1989) who received an honorary doctorate from Loyola just three years before his assassination in San Salvador.
Among the many treasures housed in Loyola’s Archives and Special Collections is the Edward A. Cudahy Jesuitica Collection. The JHRC aims at making these invaluable works more widely known, both on campus as well as around the globe.
3. The JHRC envisions future collaboration with Jesuit archives both domestically and abroad
For examples of the institutions with which the JHRC and Loyola will collaborate with, please visit Resources.
Who We Are
The founding director of the JHRC is Stephen Schloesser, S.J., Professor of Modern European Intellectual and Cultural History in the Department of History. Schloesser, a Jesuit and historian with expertise in theology, namely Catholic studies, brings a unique, research-driven perspective on preserving, documenting, and sharing cultural and religious history to the JHRC.
Two of his recently published reviews for the Journal of Jesuit Studies may be found here:
- Review of Sarah Shortall’s Soldiers of God
- Review of Les Jésuites: Histoire et dictionnaire, edited by Pierre Antoine Fabre and Benoist Pierre
LEARN MORE ABOUT STEPHEN SCHLOESSER, S.J.
Loyola University Chicago's Jesuit Heritage Research Center (JHRC) has been founded to facilitate Jesuit presence at the university as well as advanced scholarship on the history and mission of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).
Our Mission
The mission of the JHRC is threefold:
1. Facilitation of Jesuit presence at Loyola University Chicago
Loyola has enjoyed the continuous presence of Jesuits since its founding as St. Ignatius College on Chicago’s Near West Side in 1870 and its reincorporation as Loyola University Chicago and relocation to the North Side Lake Shore campus in 1906.
As this ongoing Jesuit presence continues into the future, the JHRC works to facilitate bringing Jesuits to campus from across the Jesuit Global Network of Schools and Universities.
Visiting Jesuit scholars and instructors will benefit from Chicago’s numerous intellectual and cultural riches including research and educational institutions. In turn, these visiting Jesuits enrich the campus—by teaching courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels; by leading scholarly conversations on campus; and by offering presentations open to the public in the greater Chicago area.
2. Expanding knowledge and awareness of Loyola Chicago’s Jesuit heritage and identity
Working in coordination with Loyola’s University Archives & Special Collections, the JHRC aims at facilitating greater awareness—locally, nationally, and internationally—of the university’s connection with nearly five centuries of Jesuit history.
This heritage includes the eccentric polymath Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680); the “world map” of Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) at the Chinese Imperial Court; and the voluminous Jesuit Relations sent to France as annual reports by French missionaries in North America.
It also includes the maps produced by Pierre-Jean de Smet (1801-1873); the institutional foundations (including Loyola) of de Smet’s protégé and fellow Low Countries émigré, Arnold J. Damen (1815-1890); and the many Jesuit educational institutions founded by Jesuit immigrants to the United States in service of immigrant populations.
And finally, it includes numerous Jesuits during the last hundred years—including the French Jesuits of the Christian Witness resistance to Nazism; Claude Heithaus (1898-1976) and the Markoe brothers, John (1890-1967) and William (1892-1969); the paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955); and Ignacio Ellacuría (1930-1989) who received an honorary doctorate from Loyola just three years before his assassination in San Salvador.
Among the many treasures housed in Loyola’s Archives and Special Collections is the Edward A. Cudahy Jesuitica Collection. The JHRC aims at making these invaluable works more widely known, both on campus as well as around the globe.
3. The JHRC envisions future collaboration with Jesuit archives both domestically and abroad
For examples of the institutions with which the JHRC and Loyola will collaborate with, please visit Resources.
Who We Are
The founding director of the JHRC is Stephen Schloesser, S.J., Professor of Modern European Intellectual and Cultural History in the Department of History. Schloesser, a Jesuit and historian with expertise in theology, namely Catholic studies, brings a unique, research-driven perspective on preserving, documenting, and sharing cultural and religious history to the JHRC.
Two of his recently published reviews for the Journal of Jesuit Studies may be found here:
- Review of Sarah Shortall’s Soldiers of God
- Review of Les Jésuites: Histoire et dictionnaire, edited by Pierre Antoine Fabre and Benoist Pierre
LEARN MORE ABOUT STEPHEN SCHLOESSER, S.J.