Saint Louis Priory School


Saint Louis Priory School is a Catholic secondary day school for boys on a 150-acre campus in Creve Coeur, Missouri, within the Archdiocese of St. Louis. The school is run by the Benedictine monks of Saint Louis Abbey.
WWW priory.org

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, 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 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. In this history, Horner describes the initial contact with St. Louis Catholic laymen, and explains the process of founding a new school in the English Benedictine Congregation.
As Horner 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.

Academics

Priory offers an education shaped by the Benedictine order's tradition of Christian humanism, with particular attention to Catholic theology, classical and modern foreign languages, English and American literature, mathematics and the natural sciences, history, computer science, and the fine arts.
The online site Niche consistently ranks Priory as #1 in multiple categories. In 2025, Priory was ranked #1 Best Catholic High School in Missouri and #1 Best All-Boys High School in the St. Louis Metro area and the state of Missouri.
The Washington Post ranked Priory second, and the top private school, in Missouri, in its 2016 list of "America's Most Challenging High Schools."

Abbey Church

The Abbey Church was constructed in 1962 and was finished on September 7, 1962. It is also known as the Church of the Abbey of St. Mary and St. Louis. It was designed by Gyo Obata of Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum. The church's circular facade consists of three tiers of whitewashed, thin-shell concrete parabolic arches, the top one forming a bell-tower. The arches are faced with dark insulated-fiberglass polyester window walls.
The church holds a 14th-century sculpture of the Madonna and Christ child, a 17th-century holy font in the Della Robbia style, and modern sacred art by artists from the United States, Great Britain, Spain, and France. The 2007 AIA|CPC Design Committee gave its Twenty-five Year Award to the Abbey Church/Priory Chapel.
On the grounds outside the church are life-size sculptures of the abbey's patron saints, Saint Benedict by Lithuanian-born artist Wiktor Szostalo, and the Holy Blessed Virgin Mother Mary, Our Lady of Grace, by American sculptor Philip Howie. The Abbey Church is the home church for the Archdiocese of Saint Louis parish of Saint Anselm.

Extracurricular

Priory offers a range of extracurricular offerings for its students. These include The Record newspaper and The Shield yearbook, opportunities to perform in theater and musical dramas, a Scholar Bowl academic competition team that participates in local and state tournaments, Model UN, and student government.
The school is home to the Guild of Saint Columbkille, a medieval arts guild in which students can participate in stained glass, calligraphy, and heraldry. After demonstrating a certain level of proficiency, students may earn the title of "Master."
Additionally, Priory has a student-led Sodality of Our Lady, a religious organization that fosters in its participants a closer personal and community relationship with the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Priory Sodality is dedicated in particular to Our Lady of Walsingham.

Sports

Priory's mascot is the Ravens. When the school was founded, the sports mascot was the Saints. In the '60s, "under the influence of a charismatic history teacher who specialized in the Civil War", it was changed to the Rebels, referencing the Confederate States of America. Initially, this link was obvious and the students used Confederate symbols to show pride in their sports team, including a giant painting of General Beauregard on the gym walls. Over time, this link weakened and explicit symbols of the Confederacy went away. In 2020, the mascot was officially changed to the Ravens.
Priory is a member of the suburban Metro League, which was reconstituted out of the former ABC League. Priory students are required to participate in a sport each of the three seasons. In the fall, the school offers cross country, football, and soccer. In the winter, the school offers basketball, ice hockey, and wrestling. Students may choose to participate in the winter musical in order to fill their sports requirement. The ice hockey team is a club team that is not sponsored by the school or state, and since the dissolution of hockey clubs at two nearby public schools, Parkway North and Parkway Central, it regularly features non-Priory students on its team. However, according to a rule change starting in the 2009–2010 school year, it now fulfills the sports requirement for the winter term. In the spring, the school offers golf, track and field, tennis, rugby, baseball, lacrosse, and ultimate frisbee. Although the school has racquetball and squash facilities, it does not field teams in these sports, nor does it have a swimming and diving team, as it once did.
In the winter of 2004, the hockey team received a bid to play in the Wickenheiser Cup, a memorial tournament hosted by the Mid-States Club Hockey Association league and named for the late St. Louis Blues Center Doug Wickenheiser. Priory won the championship game, played at the Scottrade Center, giving the school its first state sports title since 1973. In 2007, the hockey team won the Wickenheiser Cup for the second time.
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 Activities Association, to compete for a full season with no losses or ties. The soccer Rebels led by All-American forward Jimmy Holmes ended the season with a perfect 26-0-0 record, winning the state Class 2 title. In November 2011, the soccer Rebels again produced a perfect season, finishing 27-0-0 and winning the Missouri State High School Class 2 championship with a 2-0 victory over Trinity High School. In so doing they became the only school in Missouri high school soccer history to twice post a perfect season, with no losses and no ties. The soccer Rebels' team record included 24 shutouts, and they outscored opponents 107-5.
In the spring of 2007, the Priory golf team won its first state title, winning by 27 shots. The final team score was 583.
A little over half a decade after establishing a lacrosse program, Priory's varsity lacrosse team won its first Missouri Scholastic Lacrosse Association state title in 2016 by defeating O'Fallon 7-6 in the double overtime Division II championship final.

Recognition

Missouri State High School Athletic Association Titles:
  • Football: 1973
  • Cross Country: 2004
  • Soccer: 2005, 2011, 2017
  • Golf: 2007, 2018
  • Tennis: 2021, 2024
Mid-States Club Hockey Association State Titles:
  • Hockey: 2004, 2007, 2022
Missouri Scholastic Lacrosse Association State Title:
  • Lacrosse: 2016
Missouri State High School Boys' Ultimate Championship Title:
  • Ultimate: 2019, 2022, and 2023
Academic State Titles
  • Scholar Bowl Academic Competitions: 1999, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2024
  • Mock Trial: 2007

Notable alumni

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