The Saint Louis Priory School, a Catholic secondary day school for boys, is located on a 150-acre campus in Creve Coeur, St. Louis County, Missouri, within the Archdiocese of Saint Louis. The school is run by the Benedictine monks of Saint Louis Abbey as part of their religious ministry.
History
The school was established in 1956, at the invitation of St. Louis Catholics, by monks of the Benedictine Ampleforth Abbey in Yorkshire, England. The corresponding Priory of Saints Louis and Mary (now Saint Louis Abbey), a Benedictine monastery, was established in 1955. 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 Reverend Columba Cary-Elwes, an author, monastic leader, and former titular Abbot of Westminster. The founding headmaster was scholar and author Rev. Timothy Horner, O.S.B., who also founded the school's first athletic team, the Rebel Ruggers.
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 (2001). In this history, Horner describes the initial contact with the interested St. Louis Catholic laymen, and explains the process of founding a new school in the English Benedictine Congregation.
As Father Timothy notes in In Good Soil, the purpose of school, as conceived by the lay St. Louis Catholics who initiated the project, was to "offer its students a Catholic-college preparatory education of the highest excellence so as to enter the colleges, universities, and technical schools of their choice." By the middle of the 20th century, Catholics had gone to great lengths to develop their own educational system and were expected to support it, so the fact that the school was founded with a view to sending its alumni to non-Catholic colleges was something of a departure for the time. More than sixty years after its founding, the purpose of the school remains remarkably consistent with the vision of its founders. According to its website, the school exists to "provide a Benedictine, Catholic, college preparatory education of the highest excellence so as to help talented and motivated young men develop their full potential as children of God."
Headmasters
Rev. Timothy Horner, OSB 1956–1974
Rev. Paul Kidner, OSB 1974–1983
Rev. Finbarr Dowling, OSB 1983–1992
Rev. Thomas Frerking, OSB 1992–1995
Rev. Gregory Mohrman, OSB 1995–2005 (First Priory alumnus to join the monastery and serve as Headmaster, class of 1976) Rev. Michael Brunner, OSB 2005–2012 Rev. Linus Dolce, OSB 2012–2014 Rev. Gregory Mohrman, OSB 2014–2018 (Elected as Abbot of Saint Louis Abbey in 2018) Rev. Cuthbert Elliott, OSB 2018–present (Second Priory alumnus to serve as Headmaster, class of 2002)
Academics
Priory offers an education shaped by the Benedictine order's tradition of Christian humanism, with particular attention to Catholic theology, classical (Latin and Greek) and modern foreign languages (French, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese), English and American literature, mathematics and the natural sciences, history, computer science, and the fine arts (vocal music, studio art, theater arts/communication, photography, stained glass art, and mass media and video production).
Students have the option to take up to 14 advanced placement courses. Honors classes begin with foreign languages in 8th grade, and in other disciplines beginning in high school. To graduate, students in their senior year must submit one of three types of theses: a research project, a work of creative writing, or a project in the visual or performing arts. Students must also participate in service to the community in order to graduate.
In 2017, the school announced that the Class of 2018 had six students - nearly 10% of the class - obtain a perfect score of 36 on the ACT with over 44% of the class earning a 33 or higher, placing them in the top 2% nationally. The average ACT score for the class was a 32. Additionally, 16 students were named National Merit Semifinalists, the highest percentage (25%) of any school in Missouri.
The online site Niche ranked Priory as the 2016-2023 Best Catholic high school and Best All Boys high school in the St. Louis Metro area and state of Missouri. It was ranked the 7th Best Catholic school in the United States in 2016; in 2017, it was ranked the 5th Best Catholic school and 10th Best All Boy's High School in the entire United States.