Three Holy Companions Chapel

Three Holy Companions Chapel

The Marquette University High School Three Holy Companions Chapel, completed in 2008, is dedicated to St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Francis Xavier and St. Peter Faber.

As university colleagues, these three holy men would become the nucleus of the Society of Jesus, just as the Chapel now serves as the core of the Marquette High community.

Spiritually, St. Ignatius, St. Francis and Blessed Peter Faber "each desired that the Lord of the Vineyard use him in His service for His greater glory". Stimulated by their academic environment and bolstered by the bonds of camaraderie, the Three Holy Companions fulfilled God's calling through mission, vision and prayer – the same values we strive to instill in our young men at Marquette High.

In the tradition of Jesuit churches, the Chapel's physical structure helps guide worshipers on their journey through the process of self-examination. "A pilgrimage of discovery potentially leading to salvation…gradually unfolds as one moves through the church."1 The very nature of the Liturgy and the arrangement of the Chapel emphasize our partaking of the "foretaste of the heavenly Liturgy which is celebrated in the Holy City of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims."2 To facilitate this pilgrim journey to interior knowledge, various pathways will lead one to continuously call to mind, and meditate on the Paschal Mystery of Christ. "Using the Spiritual Exercises as a model . . . the journey toward the Heavenly City will be laid out in the chapel."3 The religious themes and architectural and decorative details are interwoven throughout the Chapel and remind us of our commitment to Christ and his Church and of our journey with one another toward the heavenly banquet.

 Peter Hans-Kolvenbach, the current General of the Society of Jesus at the beginning of the Jubilee Year celebrating the Three Companions

1 Between Renaissance and Baroque: Jesuit Art in Rome, 1565-1610, by Gauvin Alexander Bailey

2 Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy #8

3 Between Renaissance and Baroque: Jesuit Art in Rome, 1565-1610, by Gauvin Alexander Bailey