St. Louis U. High welcomes Fr. Matthew Stewart S.J., ’98 back to the SLUH community as a priest, theology teacher, and Director of Campus Ministry. 

This will be the third time Stewart has been at SLUH: once as a student, once as Director of Campus Ministry, and now as a priest. After graduating from SLUH in 1998, Stewart went on to major in music at St. Louis University, with minors in both theology and psychology. 

“I love singing and music of all kinds,” said Stewart, emphasizing one of his great loves that he hopes to use in his time here.

After his tenure at SLU, he spent some time at Rockhurst High School in the Alum Service Corps, and then returned to SLUH, where he spent seven years as a theology teacher and in roles that included Director of Campus Ministry.

“There is so much great energy here,” said Stewart. “I have really dynamic, creative, and passionate colleagues.”

During this time, Stewart began discerning the priesthood and, after seven years at SLUH, he decided to enter the Jesuit novitiate in southwest Louisiana. 

“My discernment to enter the Jesuits and to become a priest was kind of a long process for me,” said Stewart. “It took a long time because I loved what I was doing. I loved living in St. Louis, I loved my friends and all the stuff I was doing. And so when I started kind of feeling this very quiet, but very persistent sense of, what if I'm called to this, this life as a Jesuit priest? I was like, Oh, boy, no way. But it just kept resurfacing, year after year.”

During his formation, Stewart lived in a variety of locations, ranging from New York City at Fordham, teaching at Regis University, to earning a licentiate in sacred theology in Boston. 

Upon ordination, Stewart was assigned as associate pastor of the college church at St. Louis University for a year.

“One of my Jesuit friends says that my love for learning is my most consistent quality,” said Stewart.

After serving as associate pastor for a year, he was assigned as Director of Campus Ministry at SLUH, taking over for Fr. Joseph Hill S.J., who was transferred last year. 

“I love working in high schools,” said Stewart. “I love teaching. I love theology. I love being a priest and a Jesuit. To be able to be at a place like this is really awesome.”

Even though he has past experience at SLUH, Stewart knows that he needs to be adaptable in order to help in the ways he hopes to, particularly in helping students to discern specific vocations.

A message that Stewart holds a firm belief to and wants to emphasize during his time is that everyone has the same vocation—“to be you.” 

“As a married person, a single person, a religious, a priest,” Stewart said, everyone is created by God to carry out this purpose: “to figure out how I am best able to be myself.”

Stewart believes that it is his mission to convey the love that God holds for every person and convey so in all of the various aspects of his ministry, whether it be teaching, in the confessional, or saying a Mass. 

“I want every kid in our school, literally every person in the school, that would include faculty, staff, parents, alumni, benefactors, everybody involved in our school, to know that they are infinitely loved by God,” said Stewart.