World News
St. Louis priest, world's oldest Jesuit, dies at age 104
Published: July 21, 2009
ST. LOUIS (CNS) -- Father Raymond H. Reis, a retired priest at St. Louis University who was a longtime professor of biology and also had worked as a nurse, died July 19 at age 104 at his university residence. He was the world's oldest Jesuit. According to the St. Louis-Post Dispatch daily newspaper, officials of the Society of Jesus learned from the order's headquarters in Rome that Father Reis became the oldest member of the order after the recent death of Jesuit in Mexico. A funeral Mass was to be celebrated July 23 at St. Francis Xavier College Church, followed by burial at Calvary Cemetery in north St. Louis. In 2005, when he turned 100, Father Reis told the university's magazine: "I have had an enjoyable life and I have done a lot that I wanted to do. I used to like to travel, but now I have no plans. I just let things happen." Asked if he had any advice for reaching the century mark, he responded with a chuckle: "That's something that's a gift from God."
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