60 Years a Jesuit in 2024
Retreat Director, Manresa House of Retreats – Convent, Louisiana
Born in Baltimore, Fr. Michael French, SJ, entered the former Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus on July 30, 1964, at the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues, in Wernersville, Pennsylvania. Father French’s ministry has included teaching and administration at Jesuit high schools and universities. In the latter part of his six decades as a Jesuit, Fr. French has directed retreats at two of the province’s retreat houses in Louisiana and Texas.
During his Jesuit formation, Fr. French earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and mathematics from Fordham University and a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Washington in Seattle. He was ordained a priest in June 1975 in the Alumni Chapel at Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland.
Early in his Jesuit life, Fr. French taught math and served as community vice-superior and prefect of discipline at St. Joseph’s Preparatory School in Philadelphia. He pronounced his final vows in the Society of Jesus in 1981 and returned to Baltimore in 1983, where he taught mathematics at Loyola Blakefield, a Jesuit college preparatory school for boys.
In 1991, he received a master’s degree in computer science from Loyola University in Maryland, beginning a 16-year tenure as a professor of computer science there in 1992. Father French was missioned in 2002 to the pastoral care of the St. Claude de la Colombière Jesuit Community of senior Jesuits in Baltimore as superior. From 2003 to 2008 he worked in the provincial office of the former Maryland Province as the assistant for individually missioned Jesuits.
Father French moved to St. Louis in 2009 to serve as a professor of mathematics and computer science at Saint Louis University. While at SLU, Fr. French transferred into what was then the Missouri Province.
In 2015, he shifted to retreat and spirituality ministry as retreat director at Manresa House of Retreats in Convent, Louisiana. While serving at Manresa, the COVID-19 pandemic demanded a shift to internet outreach, with which Fr. French assisted.
Father French moved to a new assignment at Montserrat Jesuit Retreat House in Lake Dallas, Texas, in July, 2022, where he served on the board of directors. He recently returned to Manresa, where he presents preached retreats, private retreats for individuals and provides individual spiritual direction.
