Campus Ministry

The Saint Viator Campus Ministry program supports the faith life of students, helping them experience an enriching, transformative, and flourishing Christian life.

Providing Liturgical Experiences

Students serve as Eucharistic ministers, ushers, liturgical dancers, lectors, musicians, cantors, and choir members. Students involved in these ministries receive training and are commissioned at the first all-school Mass of the year.

Retreat Programs

The camaraderie and bonds that form among the students during a retreat can be life-changing. The retreat experience provides an ideal opportunity for students to step back from everyday life while exploring their spirituality in a safe and relaxed environment.

Urban Immersion

the lens of Catholic social teaching. This retreat inspires a

Retreats include Freshmen Day of Service, Kairos, Quest, Urban Immersion and other retreat opportunities. Approximately 50 percent of our students participate in retreats throughout the year.

Kairos

Kairos is a 3.5 day retreat led by seniors and campus ministers where the value of Christian faith is lived and celebrated in community. The purpose of this popular retreat is to help students identify and celebrate where God’s love is active in their lives. Many students consider this retreat to be one of the most memorable experiences of their four years at Saint Viator.

Quest

Quest is a 24-hour, overnight retreat away from school

life and faith issues. Quest is designed to help freshmen and sophomores discover more about themselves, others and God. The retreat is led by sophomores under the direction of a campus minister.

This 24-hour retreat, offered three times each year at the David Darst Center in Chicago, immerses students into real-world experiences of poverty and injustice. Students analyze and explore their experiences through and home to meet new people and talk about important

commitment to serve and a passion for social change.

Building a Community of Faith

Students gather in the welcoming, relaxed Campus Ministry Office to talk, study, pray, connect, and support one another. It’s a space that offers students a chance to grow together in faith and explore themes of Catholic social justice, service, and how to actively live their faith.

Saint Viator and Fr. Louis Querbes

In 1831, Father Louis Querbes of Lyon, France, established a religious community of young men to assist the clergy in their parish work, especially the teaching of catechism. When Father Querbes was looking for a spiritual model for this group, he recalled Viator, the saint from his home city of Lyon who carried out similar work hundreds of years before.

Saint Viator lived in the third century and served as an aide to Bishop Just, helping young people develop their religious beliefs. By public acclamation, both Viator and Bishop Just were declared saints. Now, their legacy lives on through the Clerics of St. Viator. For more than 160 years, Viatorians have proclaimed the Gospel as educators and ministered to the needs of others, lifting up communities where faith is lived, deepened, and celebrated. Saint Viator High School was founded in 1961 in an effort to fulfill the Viatorian commitment to the Christian education of youth.