Loyola University Maryland welcomes Rev. James Martin, S.J., noted editor, commentator, and award-winning author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything and My Life with the Saints, for a lecture on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011 at 7 p.m. in McGuire Hall on the University’s North Charles Street campus. The event is free and open to the public, and sponsored by the Center for Community Service and Justice, Loyola Campus Ministry, and Loyola’s office of mission integration.
Fr. Martin is a Jesuit priest and culture editor of America, the national Catholic magazine. He is the author of several books including his bestselling memoir My Life with the Saints, which received the 2007 Christopher Award, and he is the editor of numerous other books about faith. His most recent book, The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, was published in 2010.
His writing has been published in national and international Catholic publications, national newspapers including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and popular news websites. He has appeared on television and radio programs ranging from NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross to Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report to discuss religion and spirituality, and is a frequent guest on major cable news networks.
For his writings and various ministries, Fr. Martin has received Fordham University's Gaudium et Spes Award, the Ignatian Volunteer Corps's Madonna della Strada Award, and the Loyola Institute of Spirituality's Writers' Award. Besides his editorial, publishing and media work, Fr. Martin conducts various seminars and retreats and assists on Sundays at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City.
Fr. Martin graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business in 1982, where he received a bachelor's degree in finance. After working for six years in corporate finance and human resources with General Electric Co., he entered the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) in 1988. During his novitiate, Fr. Martin worked in a hospice for the sick and dying with the Missionaries of Charity in Kingston, Jamaica; and at the Nativity Mission School, a school for poor boys, in New York City. In August 1990, he pronounced his simple vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. From 1990 to 1992, he studied philosophy at Loyola University Chicago, and also worked in an outreach program with street-gang members in the inner city. For his regency, he worked for two years with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Nairobi, Kenya, where he helped East African refugees start small businesses. Fr. Martin received his master's degree in divinity in 1998 and his master's in theology in 1999 from the Weston Jesuit School of Theology, in Cambridge, Mass. While in Cambridge, he also worked as a chaplain at a Boston prison. He was ordained a Catholic priest in June 1999, and he received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Wagner College in 2007. On Nov. 1, 2009, he pronounced his final vows as a Jesuit.
For more information about this event, please visit www.loyola.edu/joinus/jesuitguide.
For more information or questions regarding this story, contact Media Relations Manager Nick Alexopulos at nalexopulos@loyola.edu or 410-617-5025.