2024 Jubilarians

In Gratitude for their Service

Anniversary 60 Years a Priest
Assignment Praying for the Church and the Society
Location St. Ignatius Hall, Florissant, Missouri

Louis Oldani, SJ

Father Louis Oldani, SJ, this year celebrating the 60th anniversary of his priestly ordination, has been a member of the Society of Jesus for more than 70 years. During that time, he has served God and the Church through education. He has also written and edited publications on theater, particularly Jesuit theater.

Born in St. Louis in 1933, he graduated from St. Louis University High School in 1951. He entered the Jesuit St. Stanislaus Novitiate that same year.

Father Oldani spent his academic career as a member of the faculty at Rockhurst College (now Rockhurst University), in Kansas City, Missouri. He started out as a teacher of English and American Literature in 1971, becoming a professor of English in 1985. He was professor emeritus of English at Rockhurst from 2011 until 2016.

He returned to his hometown of St. Louis in 2016 to serve as a pastoral minister in the Jesuit Hall Community at Saint Louis University. In 2023, he moved to the St. Ignatius Hall Jesuit Community, where he prays for the Church and the Society.

Father Oldani holds four degrees from Saint Louis University: a bachelor’s degree in philosophy (1957), a licentiate in philosophy (1959), a master’s in English (1962) and a Bachelor of Sacred Theology (1966). He also received a Ph.D. in English/American Literature from the University of Pennsylvania in 1972.