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 operated by the Benedictine monks of Saint Louis Abbey. History The school was established in 1956, at the invitation of St. Louis Catholics, by the Benedictine monks of the 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 of the abbey in St. Louis, from 1955 to 1967, was Fr. Columba Cary-Elwes, an author, monastic leader, and former titular Abbot of Westminster. The founding headmaster was scholar and author Fr. Timothy Horner. 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 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 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 The Washington Post ranked Priory second, and the top private school, in Missouri, in its 2016 list of "America's Most Challenging High Schools." 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 according to Niche. Athletics Priory is a member of the suburban Metro League, which was reconstituted out of the former ABC League. Mascot 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. State and tournament championships 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, 2022, and 2026, the hockey team also won the Wickenheiser Cup. Four times is the most by any high school in tournament history. In the fall of 2005, the Priory varsity soccer team became the first in the 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 (Illinois) 7–6 in the double overtime Division II championship final. Notable alumni Government and politics Carl J. Artman (1983), Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, United States Department of the Interior, 2007–2008 John A. Heffern (1972), United States Ambassador to Armenia, 2011–2014, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, US Department of State Bureau of European Affairs, 2015–present D. John Sauer (1993), Rhodes Scholar, Solicitor General of Missouri Business Tom Baldwin (1974), founder of the Baldwin Group William K. "Billy" Busch (1978), son of Anheuser-Busch chairman and Saint Louis Cardinals baseball team owner August A. Busch Jr.. William Donius (1977), President and CEO, Pulaski Bank Thomas Schlafly (1966), co-founder of Saint Louis Brewery David Wehner (1986), CSO of Meta Platforms Sports and entertainment Kevin Kline (1965), Academy Award-winning actor John Klein (1983), former professional soccer player, Southeast Missouri State women's soccer coach Dave Holmes (1989), MTV VJ and reality TV show host Benjamin R. Noll (2000), NFL offensive lineman; played for the St. Louis Rams, Dallas Cowboys, and Detroit Lions Arts and sciences Eddy L. Harris (1974), author and filmmaker Thomas L. Delworth (1976), a fellow of the American Geophysical Union who received the 2021 Bert Bolin Award for Climate research John Keene (1983), MacArthur Fellow, writer, translator, professor, and artist References External links St. Louis Priory School Ampleforth Abbey