Stephen Molvarec, S.J., joins faculty of School of Theology and Ministry

School of Theology and Ministry Assistant Professor of Church History Stephen Molvarec, S.J., went from STM student to faculty member in record time.

“I had to be the fastest crossover to the other side of the desk. One month I was a student, the next month I was hired,” said Fr. 莫尔瓦雷茨获得了M.Div. 2022年和2022年.T.L. in 2023. “I have [the late former STM Dean] Tom Stegman to thank for that because Tom was just convinced that I belonged here and it was just a question of working out where and how at BC.”

毕业后，. Molvarec served as visiting assistant professor at STM during 2022-23. He became a full-fledged faculty member this past July. This semester he co-teaches History of Western Christianity I with STM Dean Michael McCarthy, S.J. It’s his first experience co-teaching a course, and he has found it to be “fun.他的另一门课程是关于异端的研讨会.

“My joke around school is that the seminar is not a practicum,” he said. 本课程面向博士生和硕士电子游戏正规平台生.T.L. students who are interested in questions around medieval reform and also Protestant reformation.

For the spring semester, one of the courses he will be teaching is on Tolkien. 为了未来, he is considering courses on topics such the history of silence and contemplation or the history of the relationship of Christians with the material world.

美国中西部省成员. Molvarec entered the Society of Jesus in 2012 was ordained in 2022. 他住在圣. 玛丽的. Some of his ministry work has included direct work with the homeless in Detroit, 芝加哥, 和密尔沃基, as well as serving as a chaplain for the boxing and rugby teams at Loyola University 芝加哥, and more recently as a deacon at Boston University.

“I think it’s important to have contact with students' lives outside of classrooms, and for them to know me not just as a teacher he said.”

He was first drawn to STM because he and his provincial were looking for a place that would offer intellectual rigor and help in his formation as a priest. “我喜欢我们这里的社区. 教师在这方面投入了很多, and students are invested in it in a way that doesn't always happen in other places. 也, I’ve questioned how what I do as a historian can be helpful for the Society [Jesuits] or the Church. And in this role as a church historian, I’m helping form ministers for the Church. And so in my mind and in my heart, joining STM was a perfect arrangement.”

作为一名中世纪历史学家，Fr. Molvarec conducts research in medieval 拉丁, French, and German. He is a member of several professional associations, including the Medieval Academy of America and the La Société Internationale des Médiévistes in Paris, for which he served as director of communications for 12 years. He recently began a term on the board of directors for the New York State Association of European Historians.

He earned a master of arts and doctorate in medieval history, both from the University of Notre Dame. 为了他的论文, 他探索了迦太基人, a religious order of hermit-monks founded more than 900 years ago in France, thought about solitude and how they related to society and the Church. He was particularly drawn to study a time period in the mid-1200s when the order, 哪个国家的大部分修道院都在偏远地区, 没有到达过的地方, chose to build a monastery in close proximity to Paris.

一些Fr. Molvarec’s more recent research centers on the Eucharist and Saint Guinefort, a greyhound dog that was venerated by Catholics in 13th-century France, and what that says about the relationship of medieval people with nature.

在写论文的时候，Fr. Molvarec was awarded a Birgit Baldwin Fellowship through the Medieval Academy of America that allowed him to travel and study in Paris for two years.

“They were two of the best years of my life to date,” said Fr. Molvarec. “巴黎是一个可爱的城市. 从某些方面来说，这是一座19世纪的城市. 那里的生活比较慢，而且真的很清新. I think that the French understand how to enjoy life, whereas Americans just work too hard. 这是我最喜欢的城市之一.”

其中之一. Molvarec最喜欢的其他城市? 水牛.

“这是一个我喜欢的城市。. Molvarec，他在布法罗出生和长大. “水牛 was very important city at the beginning of the 20th century due to its location at the terminus of the Erie Canal. It was one of the country’s largest cities and drew a lot of millionaires. Every major architect of the 20th century has a building in 水牛, including Frank Lloyd Wright. It’s where Theodore Roosevelt was inaugurated after the assassination of President William McKinley.”

Fr. Molvarec就读于布法罗的Canisius学院. 那是他第一次遇到耶稣会士的地方.

“So much was given to me there in ways that I think a lot of people never experience. 我学过希腊语, 拉丁, 哲学, and history in a way that isn't possible in most places these days. I was close with a number of Jesuits while I was a student, 我仍然和我的一些老师保持联系. I don't know that many people still email or go out for lunch with their college professors more than 20 years later, 但我知道. 这是一个非常特别的地方.”

His positive experiences at Canisius inform his approach as a teacher and pastoral minister. “我试着把我得到的东西传递出去, whether it's friendships with Jesuits or what I was given by faculty members. And then I try to bring that into a context of the Church. 就是这么简单.”