Since 1837

Saturday, August 15, 2009, a historic event occurred in the sleepy town of Grand Coteau, Louisiana: eighteen-year-old Louie Hotop and eleven other men arrived to become Jesuit novices. In one sense the event was routine. Every year at this time, at this place, several men begin their lives as Jesuits this way.

What made this moment special, however, was that when Louie and his classmates stepped through the door, not only did their lives change, but so did the very existence of the novitiate at Grand Coteau. The Jesuit Novitiate of Saint Stanislaus Kostka, their entrance inaugurated a new novitiate: , named after the patron saint of Jesuit novices.

Jesuits first came to Grand Coteau in 1837. The Religious of the Sacred Heart had opened a girls’ school here in 1821 and had petitioned the bishop of Lyons, France, to send Jesuits to open a boys’ school.

Link (here) to a lengthy and very interesting article by Fr. Mark Thibodeaux, SJ

Some of the First Year Novices are:

Penn Dawson,
Matt Kappadakunnel
Jonathan Harmon,
T.J. Keeley,
Joseph Sandoval,
Kevin Gunn,
Matthew Stewart,
and Louis Hotop