The American Catholic Historical Association mourns the death of Rev. Stephen J. Molvarec, SJ, a member of the Association and a candidate for Executive Council in our October 2026 election. Steve died unexpectedly on October 24, 2026, while visiting the Jesuit community at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York. He was 46.
Steve was born in Buffalo on May 3, 1980. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history at Canisius College, then a master’s and a doctorate in medieval history at the University of Notre Dame. His dissertation asked what the Carthusians thought about solitude and how they related to society and the Church. A Birgit Baldwin Fellowship from the Medieval Academy of America supported two years of research in France. He completed the doctorate in 2012, the same year he entered the Society of Jesus.
As a Jesuit, he studied philosophy at Loyola University Chicago and spent his regency at Marquette University, where he taught history, served in campus ministry, and often brought students and colleagues to lunch at the Jesuit Residence. He earned a Master of Divinity and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology at Boston College and was ordained a priest at the Church of the Gesu in Milwaukee on June 11, 2022. At his death he was assistant professor of church history in the Clough School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College.
Steve was an authority on the Carthusians and on religious life and cities in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. He published Carthusian Monasticism: History, Life, World, Texts and many articles, and served for twelve years as director of communications for the Société Internationale des Médiévistes. His recent work turned to the Eucharist and to Saint Guinefort, the greyhound venerated in thirteenth-century France. As a priest he obtained bi-ritual faculties to serve the Chaldean Catholic community around Boston. He described his vocation simply: “I try to give forward what I was given.”
ACHA members who knew him have shared their grief. Tuan Hoang entered the Notre Dame history program with Steve in the fall of 2002. At our joint meeting with the AHA in San Francisco in January 2024, Steve concelebrated the ACHA Mass; Thomas Rzeznik led the singing and Tuan read. Tuan is dedicating his current article, on the music of the St. Louis Jesuits, to Steve’s memory. Tom wrote that Steve “was a dear friend, gifted scholar, and kind soul. May he rest in peace in the arms of the loving God he served so faithfully.”
Steve did not pretend to certainty he lacked. Writing as a deacon and chaplain at Boston University, he admitted to dryness in prayer and said of his preaching, “I’m a bad liar and can’t ever pretend that I have answers I don’t.”
Arrangements
Visitation will be held Wednesday, November 4, from 3 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 8 p.m., concluding with a vigil service, in the St. Mary’s Hall Conference Room, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Thursday, November 5, at 12:15 p.m. at St. Ignatius Loyola Church, 28 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill. Both will be livestreamed on the St. Ignatius Parish YouTube channel. Interment will follow at the Jesuit Cemetery at Campion Jesuit Community in Weston. Marquette will hold a memorial service at a later date.
We extend our prayers to his parents, Michael Molvarec and Susan Sawick-Molvarec; his siblings, Luke and Elizabeth; his Jesuit brothers; and his students and colleagues. May he rest in peace.