Father Michael Marchlewski, SJ, has dedicated his life to Jesuit education, spending more than 50 years in the classroom. He entered the former Missouri Province of the Society of Jesus in 1954 after graduating from St. Louis University High School (SLUH), and served in high schools in Kansas City, St. Louis and Colorado. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fr. Marchlewski transitioned to pastoral ministry to seminarians at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. He regularly ministers, including hearing confessions, at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis.

Father Marchlewski’s Jesuit intellectual formation took him from Saint Louis University, where he earned degrees in French and philosophy, to the Louvain in Belgium, where he earned a licentiate in sacred theology. He was ordained a priest on July 29, 1967, in Brussels.

He began his 50-year educational ministry during his regency at Rockhurst High School, where he served from 1961 to 1964. He returned to Rockhurst after ordination and taught Latin and French from 1969 to 1983. While there, he pronounced his final vows in the Society of Jesus in 1975. After teaching languages at Regis Jesuit High School in Aurora, Colorado, from 1984 to 1991, Fr. Marchlewski spent a year as an assistant vice president at Saint Louis University’s Madrid campus in Spain, from 1991 to 1992.

Father Marchlewski returned to his hometown of St. Louis in 1992 and came to be known affectionately as “Father Marco” by students. He taught religion at De Smet Jesuit High School in St. Louis from 1992 to 2004, and theology and languages at St. Louis University High School from 2004 to 2016. He also served as an assistant to the president and a chaplain at St. Louis University High School from 2016 to 2020. A lifelong Jr. Bills fan, “Father Marco” reflected on 50 years as a priest and his time at SLUH in 2017.