In 1885, two assemblies of Benedictine monks—one from Pennsylvania, the other from Ohio—journeyed west and joined forces to serve the Czech and Slovak immigrants who had begun settling in Chicago at midcentury. They named their new parish St. Procopius Abbey in honor of the first canonized Czechoslovakian saint. In 1887, St. Procopius College became the first Czech school of higher learning in the United States. After moving to Lisle —onto farmland purchased by the monks 30 miles west of Chicago—in 1901, the school began to extend its reach beyond the Czech community. It became coeducational in 1968 and, after adding several graduate programs, was renamed Benedictine University in 1996.

Sarah Fenton