Seeking Truth, Transforming Lives
Saint Louis University's history of educational excellence goes back more than 200 years. As the first university in the American West, we are proud of our home in St. Louis and of our Catholic, Jesuit mission.
Our origins are humble. In November 1818, classes were offered to 鈥測oung gentlemen鈥 in a few rooms rented by newly arrived Bishop Louis DuBourg. Vincentian seminarians were studying theology nearby. A few years later, the Jesuits of the Missouri Mission began to run the school. And the rest, as they say, is history.