Just over an hour’s drive north of the campus of St. Louis U. High sits the Madonna Della Strada Retreat Center, 89 acres of pristine rural Missouri land that, as of this past summer, is now open and available for retreats and group service opportunities.

The idea of a retreat center owned by SLUH was first hatched under the leadership of former President David Laughlin as a part of the Go Forth campaign, though some of the first substantial developments occurred early into the presidency of current SLUH President Alan Carruthers. Since then, Carruthers has taken the lead role in the acquisition of the site and the construction of new infrastructure on the property.  The center, which sits near the small town of Silex in Lincoln County, came under the ownership of SLUH through a mixture of donations and purchases from the Sansone family, who have a long history of philanthropy in both the school community and in the St. Louis area as a whole.

Among St. Louis’s Catholic high schools, SLUH is unique in that it is the only one with its own retreat center.  The acquisition of Madonna Della Strada makes SLUH the third Jesuit high school in the nation to take ownership of a retreat center.

“We’re only the third Jesuit school to have a retreat center like this in the United States, so we’re not the first and we can learn from those experiences (of other schools),” said Carruthers. “We have sent teams to find out how the other places are utilizing and running theirs, and how they’re continuing to grow.”

The administration hopes that a SLUH-owned retreat center will eliminate much of the cost associated with facilitating school-sponsored retreats. The cost of the acquisition and subsequent construction is also expected to be made up by allowing the space to be rented by outside organizations who wish to hold retreats there.

“We were looking at ways in the long term to make (retreats) more affordable,” said Carruthers. “So, believe it or not, with the number of retreats that we can do with teams, and if we can eventually get to a level where we can host larger retreats like Kairos, for example, we can actually utilize it as a cost-cutting measure. If we can start to rent the center to other outside groups, which we’ve also started to do, we can start to generate revenue. We can go from placing pressure on tuition to actually helping us with our budget.”

Once the property was acquired, the administration began to finalize plans to expand existing facilities, including a revamping of the sewage system and expansion of bed space for overnight retreats.  In addition to a main building that formerly served as a country home, the center also offers a variety of outdoor activities such as running and walking trails, a small pond for fishing, and a firepit area.  

In addition to this abundance of recreational options, plans are underway for a renovation of a barn on the property, which is expected to be used as a rec center for retreat groups.

Plans have also been made to construct an authentic Marian Grotto on the premises, which aims to further reinforce the faith component of Madonna Della Strada.

“We had a donor provide the financing to put in a true Marian Grotto,” said Carruthers. “We have an old Italian marble statue of Mary that has been in school storage for years, so we’re going to build a grotto around her, which will be a great faith enhancement piece to add to the property.”

As the construction at the center has gradually been finished, larger groups have visited the property for a variety of different opportunities.  The Fathers’ Club has already visited several times for various retreats and service opportunities, and both the soccer and football teams visited for single-day retreats over the summer.  

As of now, only one formal SLUH student retreat is scheduled to be held at the center, the 10-person Art Retreat that is led by art teacher Sean Powers. As of now, larger overnight retreats are unable to be held at Madonna Della Strada as there is only enough room for fewer than 30 guests to spend the night.  The administration is working to remedy this problem, and the hope is that some bigger retreats, such as Kairos, will be able to take place fully, at the center, in the coming years. The possibility of holding a one-day retreat, such as the Freshman Retreat, at the center has also been considered.

“Right now, there just aren’t enough beds for us to bring in 150, 200 people out there,” said Director of Campus Ministry Fr. Matt Stewart, SJ. “But right now, freshman retreat isn’t overnight, so it could be possible (to hold the retreat at the center).  It’s the sort of thing that could happen.  I also could see something like  Direction Days being out there. We just aren’t totally certain at this point.”

In addition to academic retreats, the hope is also that some of SLUH’s many clubs, teams, and activities will take advantage of the opportunity to have retreats and outings to the center.  

“We have already had some teams use it,” said Carruthers, “I believe football and soccer so far have done retreats there. Hopefully we could see Cross Country move their retreat there, we have some trails that could be appropriate for that.  I’m just really excited.  It’s a tremendous resource.”