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Roger Bacon Order of Friars Minor
Statue of Roger Bacon in the Oxford University Museum
Born	c. 1214 Ilchester, Somerset
Died	1294 (aged c. 80)
Nationality	English
Other names	Doctor Mirabilis
Occupation	Friar, scholar
Organization	Order of Friars Minor
Religion	Roman Catholic

Roger Bacon, O.F.M. (c. 1214–1294), (scholastic accolade Doctor Mirabilis, meaning "wonderful teacher"), was an English philosopher and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through empirical methods. He is sometimes credited, mainly starting in the 19th century, as one of the earliest European advocates of the modern scientific method inspired by the works of Aristotle and later pseudo-Aristotelian works, like the works of Muslim scientist Alhazen.^[1] However, more recent reevaluations emphasize that he was essentially a medieval thinker, with much of his "experimental" knowledge obtained from books, in the scholastic tradition.^[2] A survey of the reception of Bacon's work over centuries found that it often reflects the concerns and controversies central to the receivers.^[3]

Life[link]

Roger Bacon was born in Ilchester in Somerset, England, possibly in 1213 or 1214 at the Ilchester Friary.^[4] The only source for his date of birth is his statement in the Opus Tertium, written in 1267, that "forty years have passed since I first learned the alphabet". The 1214 birth date assumes he was not being literal, and may have meant 40 years had passed since he matriculated at Oxford at the age of 13. If he had been literal, his birth date was more likely to have been around 1220/1222. In the same passage he reports that for all but two of those forty years he had always been engaged in study.^[5] His family appears to have been well-off, but, during the stormy reign of Henry III of England, their property was despoiled and several members of the family were driven into exile.

Bacon studied at Oxford and may have been a disciple of Grosseteste. He became a master at Oxford, lecturing on Aristotle. There is no evidence he was ever awarded a doctorate — the title Doctor Mirabilis was posthumous and figurative. Sometime between 1237 and 1245, he began to lecture at the university of Paris, then the centre of intellectual life in Europe. His whereabouts between 1247 and 1256 are uncertain, but about 1256 he became a friar in the Franciscan Order. As a Franciscan friar, Bacon no longer held a teaching post, and after 1260 his activities were further restricted by a Franciscan statute forbidding friars from publishing books or pamphlets without specific approval.^[6]

Bacon circumvented this restriction through his acquaintance with Cardinal Guy le Gros de Foulques, who became Pope Clement IV in 1265. The new Pope issued a mandate ordering Bacon to write to him concerning the place of philosophy within theology. As a result Bacon sent the Pope his Opus Majus, which presented his views on how the philosophy of Aristotle and the new science could be incorporated into a new Theology. Besides the Opus maius Bacon also sent his Opus minus, De multiplicatione specierum, and, perhaps, other works on alchemy and astrology.^[7]

Pope Clement died in 1268. Sometime between 1277 and 1279, Bacon was probably imprisoned or placed under house arrest. The circumstances for this are still mysterious. Sometime after 1278 Bacon returned to the Franciscan House at Oxford, where he continued his studies.^[8] He is believed to have died in 1294.

Changing interpretations of Bacon[link]

"Friar Bacon's Study", in Oxford. By the late 18th century this study, on Folly Bridge, had become a place of pilgrimage for scientists. The building was pulled down in 1779 to allow for road widening.^[9]

In the 18th century it was a widely held interpretation that Bacon was a modern experimental scientist who emerged before his time. This reflected two prevalent views of the period: an emphasis upon experiment as the principal form of scientific activity and a general acceptance of the characterization of the Middle Ages as the "Dark Ages".^[10][11] Some writers of the period carried this account further. For instance, according to Andrew Dickson White, Bacon was repeatedly persecuted and imprisoned because of the opposition of the medieval Church.^[12][13] In this view, which is still reflected in some 21st century popular science books,^[14][15] Bacon would be an advocate of modern experimental science who somehow emerged as an isolated figure in an age supposed to be hostile toward scientific ideas.^[16] He was also presented as a visionary; for instance Frederick Mayer wrote that Bacon predicted the invention of the submarine, automobile, and airplane.^[17]

However, in the course of the 20th century, the philosophical understanding of the role of experiment in the sciences has been substantially modified. Starting with works of Pierre Duhem, Raoul Carton, and Lynn Thorndike,^[18] Bacon's advocacy of scientia experimentalis has been argued to differ from modern experimental science.^[19] New historical research has also shown that medieval Christians were not generally opposed to scientific investigation^[20][21] and revealed the extent and variety of medieval science. In fact, many medieval sources of and influences on Bacon's scientific activity have been identified.^[22] For instance, Bacon's idea that inductively derived conclusions should be submitted for further experimental testing is very much like Robert Grosseteste's 'Method of Verification',^[23] and Bacon's work on optics and the calendar also followed the lines of inquiry of Grosseteste.^[24]

As a result, the picture of Bacon has changed. One recent study summarized that: "Bacon was not a modern, out of step with his age, or a harbinger of things to come, but a brilliant, combative, and somewhat eccentric schoolman of the thirteenth century, endeavoring to take advantage of the new learning just becoming available while remaining true to traditional notions... of the importance to be attached to philosophical knowledge".^[25] Bacon is thus seen as a leading, but not isolated figure in the beginnings of medieval universities at Paris and Oxford, among other contemporary exponents of this shift in the philosophy of science (as we call it today), including Grosseteste (who preceded Bacon), William of Auvergne, Henry of Ghent, Albert Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham.^[26]

As to the alleged persecution, the first known reference to an imprisonment originates around 80 years after Bacon's death. It says the order was given by the head of the Franciscans because of unspecified "suspected novelties".^[27][28] However, the fact that no earlier report has been found drives skepticism over the assertion. Moreover, current historians of science who see an incarceration as plausible typically don't connect it with Bacon's scientific writings.^[28] Instead, if it happened, scholars speculate that his troubles resulted from such things as his sympathies for radical Franciscans,^[29] attraction to contemporary prophecies,^[28] or interest in certain astrological doctrines.^[30] Bacon's personality has also been mentioned as a factor.^[31]

A recent review of the many visions that each age has held about Roger Bacon says contemporary scholarship still neglects one of the most important aspects of his life and thought: the commitment to the Franciscan order. "His Opus maius was a plea for reform addressed to the supreme spiritual head of the Christian faith, written against a background of apocalyptic expectation and informed by the driving concerns of the friars. It was designed to improve training for missionaries and to provide new skills to be employed in the defence of the Christian world against the enmity of non-Christians and of the Antichrist. It cannot usefully be read solely in the context of the history of science and philosophy."^[3]

Works[link]

Optic studies by Bacon

Bacon's Opus Majus contains treatments of mathematics and optics, alchemy, and the positions and sizes of the celestial bodies.

View of the past[link]

The training Bacon had received showed him the rare defects in existing academic debate.^{[citation needed]} Aristotle was known only through translations, as none of the professors would learn Greek; the same was true of Scripture and many of the other auctores ("authorities") referenced in traditional education. In contrast to Aristotle's argument that facts be collected before deducing scientific truths, physical science was not carried out by observations from the natural world, but by arguments based solely on tradition and prescribed authorities (see Scholasticism).

Bacon withdrew from the scholastic routine and devoted himself to languages and experimental research. The mathematicians whom he considered perfect were Peter of Maricourt and John of London, and two were good: Campanus of Novara and a Master Nicholas. Peter was the author of a famous letter to a friend, Epistola de Magnete, in which he described some of the earliest European experiments with magnetism.^[32] Campanus wrote several important works on astronomy, astrology, and the calendar.^[33] Bacon often mentioned his debt to the work of Robert Grosseteste and Adam Marsh, as well as to other lesser figures. He was clearly not an isolated scholar in the thirteenth century.^[34]

New approach[link]

In his writings, Bacon calls for a reform of theological study. Less emphasis should be placed on minor philosophical distinctions than had been the case in scholasticism. Instead, the Bible itself should return to the centre of attention and theologians should thoroughly study the languages in which their original sources were composed. He was fluent in several languages and lamented the corruption of the holy texts and the works of the Greek philosophers by numerous mistranslations and misinterpretations. Furthermore, he urged all theologians to study all sciences closely, and to add them to the normal university curriculum. With regard to the obtaining of knowledge, he strongly championed experimental study over reliance on authority, arguing that "thence cometh quiet to the mind". Bacon did not restrict this approach to theological studies. He rejected the blind following of prior authorities, both in theological and scientific study, which was the accepted method of undertaking study in his day.

In the Opus Minus he criticizes his contemporaries Alexander of Hales and Albertus Magnus who, he says, had not studied the philosophy of Aristotle but only acquired their learning during their life as preachers.^[35] Albert was received at Paris as an authority equal to Aristotle, Avicenna, and Averroes,^[36] leading Bacon to proclaim that "never in the world [had] such monstrosity occurred before."^[37]

Optics[link]

The study of optics in part five of Opus Majus draws heavily on the works of both Claudius Ptolemy (his Optics in Arabic translation) and the Islamic scientists Alkindus (al-Kindi) and Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham).^[38][1] He includes a discussion of the physiology of eyesight, the anatomy of the eye and the brain, and considers light, distance, position, and size, direct vision, reflected vision, and refraction, mirrors and lenses. His research in optics was primarily oriented by the legacy of Alhazen through a Latin translation of the latter's monumental Kitab al-manazir (De aspectibus; Perspectivae; The Optics), while the impact of the tradition of al-Kindi (Alkindus) was principally mediated through the influence that this Muslim scholar had on the optics of Robert Grosseteste. Moreover, Bacon's investigations of the properties of the magnifying glass partly rested on the handed-down legacy of Islamic opticians, mainly Alhazen, who was in his turn influenced by Ibn Sahl's 10th century legacy in dioptrics.^[39]

Calendar[link]

Drawing on the recently discovered Greco-Muslim astronomy and on the calendaric writings of Robert Grosseteste, Bacon criticized the Julian calendar, describing it as intolerable, horrible and laughable. He proposed to correct its errors by deleting a day from the calendar every 125 or 130 days.^[40]

Other attributed works[link]

In his own writings of 1260–1280 Bacon cited Secretum secretorum, which he attributed to Aristotle, far more than his contemporaries did. Often used as an argument for the special influence that this work had on Bacon's own is the manuscript of Secretum that Bacon edited, complete with his own introduction and notes, something Bacon seldom did with others' works. Although some early 20th century scholars like Robert Steele have pushed further along this path, arguing that Bacon's contact with the Secretum was a turning point in Bacon's philosophy, transforming him into an experimentalist, there is no clear reference to such a decisive impact of the Secretum in Bacon's own words. The dating of Bacon's edition of the Secretum is a key argument in this debate, but is still unresolved, with those arguing for a greater impact dating it earlier than those who urge caution in this interpretation.^[41]

The cryptic Voynich manuscript has been attributed to Bacon by various sources, including by its first recorded owner, in a book drafted by William Romaine Newbold and posthumously edited and published by Roland Grubb Kent in 1928,^[42] and in a 2005 book of Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone published by Doubleday and Broadway Books.^[15][43] In strongly worded terms, historians of science Lynn Thorndike^[44] and George Sarton have dismissed these claims as unsupported.^[45][46]

Another work of contentious date and even origin is the Epistola de Secretis Operibus Artis et Naturae, et de Nullitate Magiae (meaning Letter on the Secret Workings of Art and Nature, and on the Vanity of Magic), sometimes alternatively entitled De Mirabili Potestate Artis et Naturae (On the Wonderful Powers of Art and Nature).^{[47][48][49][50]} This treatise dismisses magical practices like necromancy,^[49] and contains most of the alchemical work attributed to Bacon, chiefly a formula for philosopher's stone,^[50] and perhaps one for gunpowder.^[47] It also contains a number of passages about hypothetical flying machines and (what we today call) submarines, attributing their first use to Alexander the Great.^[51]

Bacon is also the ascribed author of the alchemical manual Speculum Alchemiae, which was translated into English as The Mirror of Alchimy in 1597.^[52] It is a short treatise about the composition and origin of metals, espousing "conventional" (with respect to the period) Arabian theories of mercury and sulfur as the constituents of metals, and containing vague allusions to transmutation. About this work, John Maxson Stillman wrote that "there is nothing in it that is characteristic of Roger Bacon's style or ideas, nor that distinguishes it from many unimportant alchemical lucubrations of anonymous writers of the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries". M. M. Pattison Muir had a similar opinion, and Edmund Oscar von Lippmann considered this text a pseudepigraph.^[53]

Gunpowder[link]

Bacon is often considered the first European to describe a mixture containing the essential ingredients of gunpowder. Based on two passages from Bacon's Opus Maius and Opus Tertium, extensively analyzed by J. R. Partington, several scholars cited by Joseph Needham concluded that Bacon had most likely witnessed at least one demonstration of Chinese firecrackers, possibly obtained with the intermediation of other Franciscans, like his friend William of Rubruck, who had visited the Mongols.^[47][54] The most telling passage reads: "We have an example of these things (that act on the senses) in [the sound and fire of] that children's toy which is made in many [diverse] parts of the world; i.e. a device no bigger than one's thumb. From the violence of that salt called saltpetre [together with sulphur and willow charcoal, combined into a powder] so horrible a sound is made by the bursting of a thing so small, no more than a bit of parchment [containing it], that we find [the ear assaulted by a noise] exceeding the roar of strong thunder, and a flash brighter than the most brilliant lightning."^[47]

More controversial are the claims originating with Royal Artillery colonel Henry William Lovett Hime (at the beginning of the 20th century) that a cryptogram existed in Bacon's Epistola, giving the ratio of ingredients of the mixture. These were published, among other places, in the 1911 edition of Encyclopædia Britannica.^[55] An early critic of this claim was Lynn Thorndike, starting with a letter in the 1915 edition of the journal Science ,^[56] and repeated in several books of his. M. M. Pattison Muir also expressed his doubts on Hime's theory, and they were echoed by John Maxson Stillman.^[57] Robert Steele^[58] and George Sarton also joined the critics.^[59] Needham concurred with these earlier critics in their opinion that the additional passage does not originate with Bacon.^[47] In any case, the proportions claimed to have been deciphered (7:5:5 saltpeter:charcoal:sulfur) are not even useful for stuffing firecrakers, burning slowly while producing mostly smoke, and failing to ignite inside a gun barrel.^[60] The ~41% nitrate content is too low to have explosive properties.^[61]

In fiction[link]

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To commemorate Bacon's seven hundredth anniversary, Professor John Erskine wrote A Pageant of the Thirteenth Century, a biographical play which was produced at Columbia University and published as a book by Columbia University Press in 1914.

An accessible description of Roger Bacon's life and times is contained in the fiction book Doctor Mirabilis, written in 1964 by the science fiction author James Blish.^[62] This is the second book in Blish's quasi-religious trilogy After Such Knowledge, and is a recounting of Bacon's life and struggle to develop a 'Universal Science'. Though thoroughly researched, with a host of references, including extensive use of Bacon's own writings, frequently in the original Latin, the book is written in the style of a novel, and Blish himself referred to it as 'fiction' or 'a vision'. Blish's view of Bacon is uncompromisingly that he was the first scientist, and he provides a postscript to the novel in which he sets forth these views. Central to his depiction of Roger Bacon is that 'He was not an inventor, an Edison or Luther Burbank, holding up a test tube with a shout of Eureka!' He was instead a theoretical scientist probing fundamental realities, and his visions of modern technology were just by-products of "...the way he normally thought — the theory of theories as tools..." Blish indicates where Bacon's writings, for example, consider Newtonian metrical frameworks for space, then reject these for something which reads remarkably like Einsteinian Relativity, and all '...breathtakingly without pause or hiccup, breezily moving without any recourse through over 800 years of physics'.

Many writers of earlier times have been attracted to Roger Bacon as the epitome of a wise and subtle possessor of forbidden knowledge, similar to Faustus. A succession of legends and unverifiable stories has grown up about him, for example, that he created a brazen talking head which could answer any question. This has a central role in the play Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay written by Robert Greene in about 1589.

Bacon also appears as first scientist in The Black Rose, the most commercially successful book by Thomas Costain, written in 1945. The Black Rose is set in the Middle Ages. Bacon's personal presence in the narrative is brief, but includes a demonstration of gunpowder and a few sentences outlining a philosophy of science which might as easily be attributed to Francis Bacon centuries later. The novel's Roger Bacon serves to motivate Costain's protagonist, a fictional Englishman who journeys to China during the reigns of Edward I and Kublai Khan. Costain's narration includes technology such as the compass, the telescope, rockets and the manufacture of paper, all described by his young adventurer with an eye toward bringing these marvels back to Bacon for analysis. Returning to England to find Bacon gone and under house arrest, the traveller begs King Edward to intercede with the pope for the Franciscan's release, arguing that with Bacon's imprisonment a great light of the world is in danger of being put out. Costain's character also comes to argue for emancipation of the Saxon villeins (serfs), linking political with intellectual enlightenment under the fictional Bacon's influence.

See also[link]

• Roger Bacon High School
• Oxford Franciscan school
• History of geomagnetism
• History of the scientific method
• History of science in the Middle Ages
• List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics
• Witelo
• Baco (crater) on the Moon
• Translation

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Roger Bacon

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Roger Bacon

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Roger Bacon

• "Roger Bacon" in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia.
• 1901-1906 Jewish Encyclopedia: Bacon, Roger
• Roger Bacon Quotes at Convergence
• Roger Bacon entry by Jeremiah Hackett in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Fr. Rogeri Bacon Opera quaedam hactenus Inedita. Vol. I at Google Books. Contains the Opus Tertium, Opus Minus, and Compendium Philosophiae. Edited by John Sherren Brewer (1859).
• Roger Bacon: On Experimental Science, 1268

Saint Xavier High School ( /ˈzeɪvjər/ ZAYV-yər; often abbreviated St. X) is a private, all-male, college-preparatory high school just outside Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It is located in Finneytown, an unincorporated community in Hamilton County. Founded in 1831 as part of the Athenaeum, St. Xavier is the oldest high school in the Cincinnati area^[12] and one of the oldest in the nation, preceding many universities in foundation. The independent, non-diocesan school is operated by the Chicago and Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus as one of four all-male Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Aside from colleges and universities, St. Xavier is the largest private school in Ohio^[13] and one of the 100 largest schools in the state,^[14] with over 1,500 enrolled students.

History[link]

Downtown origins[link]

St. Xavier High School at its inception, with St. Francis Xavier Church at its side.

St. Xavier, once a part of Xavier University, traces its history to the Athenaeum at Seventh Street and Sycamore Street^[15] in Downtown Cincinnati. The institute, which included a seminary and lay college, was dedicated by the first bishop of Cincinnati, the Most Rev. Edward D. Fenwick, O.P., on October 17, 1831. Just a week later, the city's first public high school, Woodward College, opened its doors. The Athenaeum stood until 1890, next to The Catholic Telegraph's printing press.^[16]

In 1840, at the behest of Bishop Fenwick,^[16] the Society of Jesus began operating the Athenaeum's lay college, which it renamed St. Xavier College, after St. Francis Xavier. The Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians) took over the seminary in 1841,^[17] and the college was granted a state charter the following year. St. Xavier College originally offered six years of integrated primary, secondary, and post-secondary education, in keeping with the Ratio Studiorum and Jesuite College in Messina, Italy.^[18] School closed on Thursdays and Sundays until 1917. Until 1851, admission was originally granted to students from 8–16 years of age.^{[19]:41, 71} Later, a tuition-free elementary school division opened to complement the college.^[12] In 1844, the school's elementary division opened a boarding school campus in Walnut Hills but was forced to close its doors two years later and return downtown.^[20] Four years later, "falling enrollment, threat of bankruptcy, and cholera" brought about proposals to close the high school division.^[12]

At the close of the 19th century, St. Xavier's athletic teams competed in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Cincinnati.^[21]

Expansion and separation[link]

A former entrance sign now hangs in the main stairwell.

In 1910, St. Xavier College transitioned to an American-style eight-year program.^[19]:74–75 Some students took typing classes at the St. Xavier Commercial School nearby. On October 1, 1906, another branch campus opened in Walnut Hills. This time, St. Xavier on the Hill served first- and second-year high school students. Tuition was $60 downtown and $80 at the suburban location.^[19]:90 Classes were held in Walnut Hills until December 1911.^[16]

The next year, the college division moved to its present North Avondale campus. St. Xavier High School formally split with St. Xavier College in 1919, with Fr. Aloysius J. Diersen, S.J., serving as the High School's first president.^[20] The College's Schools of Commerce and Sociology continued to offer evening classes at the high school. The College became Xavier University in 1930, to reflect its transition to the American university model and reduce confusion around the several Jesuit institutions in Cincinnati named St. Xavier.^{[19]:145–146} The two schools became financially independent four years later^[20] but continued to share resources. Xavier's School of Education conducted practice teaching at St. Xavier. Also, St. Xavier's senior classes studied at Xavier from 1944 to 1946, to compensate for Xavier's loss of cadets from the Army Air Corps 30th College Training Detachment during World War II.^[19]:180

The Finneytown Hilton[link]

2000

2005

The school campus, before and after its expansion onto the former Girls' Town site.

St. Xavier began its move from the original location in downtown Cincinnati in April 1955 when its president, Fr. John J. Benson, S.J., purchased a 62-acre (0.25 km²)^[22] plot in Finneytown. In September 1960, St. Xavier High School moved into its newly built facilities in unincorporated Springfield Township, designed by local architect Albert Walters.^[23] At the time, the over $4 million facilities were nicknamed the "Finneytown Hilton". The original high school building was later torn down and is now the site of a parking lot.^[12] In 1965, St. Xavier produced its first three African-American graduates, Phil Cox,^[24][25] Michael Walker,^[26] and Peter D. Samples.^[27] The same school year, Myron Kilgore was hired as the school's first African-American faculty member.^[28]

Since its move away from downtown, St. Xavier has expanded its facilities dramatically. In 1969, the school added a natatorium, featuring an $500,000 Olympic-size swimming pool.^[12][29] St. Xavier's worship space was replaced by Xavier Hall, a multipurpose facility, in 1986. In 1995, Benson Gym was renamed for basketball coach Dick Berning.^[30] In 1998, a $12.6 million expansion project moved science classes from the basement into a new, three-story wing and added the Holy Companions Chapel and a dedicated intramural gym.^[31] During the 2003–04 school year, St. Xavier renovated the football stadium around Ballaban Field, which was built in the late 1960s.^[20] Along with the stadium, the school opened a 500-seat^[32] theater space, as well as a black box theater, art studios, and renovated music rooms. A new track field replaced the track that once surrounded Ballaban Field. St. Xavier also converted the former Girls' Town of America^[33] location across the street into its "South Campus", which includes new baseball and soccer fields.^[34]

Academics[link]

As of 2009, St. Xavier has 1,550 enrolled students, the most of any Catholic high school in an area with the nation's second-highest private school attendance rate.^[42][43] For the 2011–12 school year, tuition will be US$11,395.00,^[11] which St. Xavier has claimed to be $2,737 less than the cost of educating a student at the school.^[44] During the 2010–11 school year, about 30% of students received an average of $5,345 in financial aid.^[11] The faculty consists of 120 full-time teachers, including six Jesuit priests and a sister from the Congregation of Divine Providence.^[7][45] English teacher John Hussong is the longest-standing faculty member at the school.^[46]

Admissions[link]

Students apply to St. Xavier High School by taking an entrance test and submitting an elementary school transcript, teacher recommendations, and an enrollment application. Other factors, such as legacy, are also taken into account. St. Xavier uses the High School Placement Test (HSPT) in its admissions process.^[47] Approximately half of applicants are admitted as freshmen each year.^[2] About a quarter of these students are admitted due to alumni or current students in their families (see Legacy preferences).^[48] The 418 students of the Class of 2015 include graduates of 58 private elementary schools and 29 public school districts from throughout Greater Cincinnati, Southeastern Indiana, and Northern Kentucky, as well as several homeschoolers and transplants from other states.^[49] Of the preceding class, 84% are Roman Catholic, while 14% are of other Christian denominations, 1% are Hindu, and 1% are Muslim. Eleven percent of the entire student body are racial minorities.^[50]

In addition to students from the Greater Cincinnati area, St. Xavier admits students from overseas through various foreign exchange programs, such as American Field Service. Over the years, foreign exchange students have come from many countries, including Brazil, Germany, Montenegro, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, and Vietnam.^[51][52] In particular, partner school Col·legi Casp–Sagrat Cor de Jesús in Barcelona has sent students to St. Xavier for over a decade.^[53] St. Xavier students may receive credit for work completed at the school's other partners, Canisius-Kolleg Berlin and Xavier University.^[54]

Curriculum and scheduling[link]

All students at St. Xavier are part of the school's college preparatory program, requiring 23.0 credit units for graduation. St. Xavier offers a wide variety of courses as part of the program, which is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, Jesuit Secondary Education Association (of which the school is a member), and Ohio Department of Education.^[2] The school's Foreign Language Department, for example, offers Advanced Placement–level instruction in French, German, Latin, and Spanish, as well as classes in Chinese,^[55] Portuguese, Russian, and Classical Greek. Other high-level courses include Advanced 2D Design Portfolio and Multivariable Calculus, as well as AP courses in Computer Science, English Literature and Composition, Biology, Calculus, Chemistry, Physics, Psychology, and European History.^[2] In all, the school offers 24 Advanced Placement courses in seven subject areas.^[7] As a Roman Catholic school, St. Xavier requires students to study various aspects of religion and theology each year. Students are also required to take physical education, public speaking (Oral Communications), and computer usage (Information Processing) classes, as part of an emphasis on cura personalis ("well-rounded individuals").

The school year is divided into two semesters for grading and course scheduling purposes, but exams are administered quarterly (see Academic term).^[54] St. Xavier meets on a traditional, nine-period schedule, in which students attend each class daily, ordinarily from 8:00 am to 3:05 pm. However, the order in which the classes meet vary from day to day, so that every student's science class may extend into one of the lunch periods, "Flex Times", one day each week. Additionally, two days dubbed "X and Y days" are often set aside for block scheduling, to allow for classroom material that would not otherwise fit into a normal-length class period.^[56] In 2011, St. Xavier introduced a ten-day, eight-period rolling schedule developed by Independent School Management.^[57] The school is also trialling an ISM proposal to eliminate bells between classes.^[58]

During any free periods a student may have, St. Xavier's "open campus" policy permits the student to use various school facilities, including study hall or outdoor areas.^[59] Moreover, seniors are afforded "off-campus privilege", for instance allowing them to eat lunch at nearby restaurants, rather than at the school cafeteria.

Recognition and graduation[link]

Each year, a number of St. Xavier students receive honors from standardized testing programs. From 1970 to 2008, 962 students were named semifinalists or finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program.^[2][60] In 2006, 137 students received Scholar Awards for their high scores on Advanced Placement tests; of them, three were named National AP Scholars, the highest distinction awarded.^[61] In addition, 16 were named finalists^[62] and 24 named Commended Students in the National Merit Scholarship Program.^[63] In 2007, five won the National Merit program's highest distinction.^[64] The U.S. Department of Education recognized the school itself as a Blue Ribbon School for the 1983–84 year.^[65]

Virtually all of the school's students graduate and enter a post-secondary institution after graduation.^[2] The University of Cincinnati, Ohio State University, and Miami University received the most students from the Class of 2011.^[66] According to BusinessWeek, nearly a third of the Class of 2004 pursued a major in business.^[67] In 2007, St. Xavier published a directory of over 16,000 living alumni, listing "511 living graduates as medical doctors or dentists, 624 as attorneys, and 611 as engineers".^[7]

School traditions[link]

The largest of the 50 all-male high schools run by the Society of Jesus in the United States,^[7] St. Xavier shares many Jesuit traditions with other secondary institutions run by the order. For example, graduating students are expected to have acquired the five characteristics defined in the "Graduate at Graduation" profile: Open to Growth, Intellectually Competent, Religious, Loving, and Committed to Justice.^[68] Many Jesuit high schools have "Grad at Grad" expectations, although the characteristics and their descriptions vary from school to school.

St. Xavier students are also taught the phrase Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, the motto of the Society of Jesus, and are often instructed to write the initialism "AMDG" at the top of submitted papers and tests, to remind them that even their schoolwork is "For the Greater Glory of God". The seals of both St. Xavier and Xavier University bear the motto Vidit Mirabilia Magna (Latin for "He has seen great wonders"), taken from a passage of the Roman Breviary applied to St. Francis Xavier.^[69][70] As in other Jesuit secondary schools, detention is invariably called "JUG", which is commonly said to mean "Justice Under God".^[12]

The school holds school-wide Masses on Holy Days of Obligation and other important events, as well as optional daily Mass in Holy Companions Chapel at the center of campus. Two days a year, classes are canceled, though students are still required to stay in school all day. In place of the daily orders, they attend morning Mass and are then encouraged to spend the day at school as they see fit. The autumn occasion, Spirit Day, is celebrated on the Mass of the Holy Spirit, a feast day that other Jesuit institutions also observe. During the spring occasion, MusicFest, students hold a grill-out on the school parking lot while student bands perform on a nearby stage. MusicFest began in 1986 to cap off Music Appreciation Week.^[71][72] An additional day each fall, classes are preempted for the Walk For X, a 10-kilometer (6.2 mi) walkathon through Finneytown neighborhoods that funds a financial aid program.^[73]

Ignatian retreats are offered frequently at St. Xavier. Besides class-wide programs held at the Jesuit Spiritual Center in Milford, optional retreats include Knightwatch for sophomores and Kairos,^[74] which was introduced in February 1985 for seniors.^[75]

Alma mater[link]

The alma maters of St. Xavier and another Jesuit high school, St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland, are identical except for the last two lines, which refer to the school name and colors.^[15][76] The alma mater was composed in 1937 by the St. Ignatius band director, Jack Hearns Sr. In 1958, the Cleveland school gave St. Xavier permission to adapt the song.^[77] This adaptation is sung after St. Xavier school assemblies, athletic events, and graduation:

Our famed alma mater graces

Every shrine within our hearts

With her unforgotten faces

And the faith that she imparts.

Years in passing cannot sever

Ties of old days from the new.

We are Xavier men forever

As we hail the white and blue.

Campus[link]

The front entrance to St. Xavier was renovated in 1998.

At 110 acres (0.4 km²),^[7] St. Xavier's campus is approximately the size of the Vatican City. In addition to hundreds of classrooms and the sports venues described below, the school grounds has room for a wooded walking trail, a mock courtroom, and a school history exhibit. The Fred Middendorf, S.J., Nature Trail runs about a third of a mile behind the athletic fields.^[78][79] Indoors, the Mock Trial team makes use of a specially built classroom that imitates the layout of a courtroom.^[80] Along the school's main hallways, recent student artwork hangs beside the Living Walls project, a graphical timeline accompanying 90 years of class photos.^[81]

St. Xavier maintains 11 computer labs with over 330 computers equipped with Microsoft Windows and Zip drives.^[7] By 2001, St. Xavier had become one of the first Catholic schools in Cincinnati to use SMART Boards in classrooms, Edline for parent-student-teacher communication, and Gaggle.net for student-to-student e-mail. In 2005, the school employed SMART Board or SMART Cart systems in 25 classrooms.^[82] In 2010, Gaggle service was replaced by Microsoft Live@edu accounts for students and faculty members.^[83] The school's library, named for alumnus and Ohio state representative John D. "Jay" Carroll III,^[84] contains 23,000 volumes.^[85]

The school's Finneytown campus features athletic facilities comparable to most colleges, highlighted by a new football stadium and a modernized Charles H. Keating Sr. Natatorium. The natatorium, which St. Xavier shares with the Cincinnati Marlins, houses an Olympic-size swimming pool and seats 626. It hosted the Amateur Athletic Union national swimming championships in 1970 and 1976.^[29] The football stadium, named after the school, was built during the 2003–04 school year around Ballaban Field.^[20] St. Xavier's soccer field was home to the now-defunct Cincinnati Cheetahs professional soccer team during their 1994 season.^[86]

St. Xavier's campus features a number of prominent pieces of artwork. At the entrance stands a statue of the school's namesake^[87] that once stood atop the entry to the old school building downtown.^[88] There is also a smaller statue of St. Xavier in the main stairwell.^[12] The sculpture Open End, a 1983 work by Australian sculptor Clement Meadmore, stood outside the Cincinnati Commerce Center at Sixth and Vine Streets downtown until Prudential Insurance Company donated it to St. Xavier in 1999.^[89] The 11-foot-high (3.4 m), 5-short-ton (4.5 t) curved metal beam is now located at the Math Wing entrance outside Berning Gymnasium.^[90] Inside, the Fine Art Gallery includes a landscape painting by Lewis Henry Meakin.^[91]

As of 2009, St. Xavier contracts with Aramark for food services. In addition to servicing the school cafeteria, which has been renamed the "U.B.U. Lounge", Aramark operates the Snack Xpress shop, Bomber Deli, and cafeteria annex. Previously, the school contracted with local company GTC Foodservice for 16 years.^[92] The Bait Shop concession stand in Keating Natatorium is operated separately by the Cincinnati Marlins.^[93]

Extracurricular activities[link]

St. Xavier places an emphasis on "co-curricular" activities as a complement to academics. The most visible of these activities are supported by the school's athletic, arts, and community service departments. In addition, students have formed 85 school-sanctioned clubs with the sponsorship of faculty members.^[7]

Athletics[link]

Perhaps as well regarded as its academics, St. Xavier's large athletic program was ranked 13th in the nation in 2008 by Sports Illustrated.^[94] The school offers 14 Division I athletic programs – baseball, basketball, bowling, cross country, football, golf, hockey, lacrosse, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, and wrestling^[7] – as well as Division II rugby.^[95] The teams are members of the Greater Catholic League (GCL). As one of four all-male institutions that participate in the GCL's South Division, St. Xavier competes with nearby Elder, La Salle, and Moeller high schools in athletic events that are often broadcast on Waycross Community Media. During the 2010 football season, games were broadcast on Fox Sports Radio affiliate WSAI.^[96]

St. Xavier's sports teams were originally nicknamed the "Conquistadors", or "Conquerors". Eventually, the teams came to be known as the Bombers.^[97] Competing explanations of the name change credit American success in World War II, "bombs" thrown by George Ratterman to Charley Wolf in football games,^[97] and a corruption of the nickname given to Jesuit missionaries in World War II, the "Balmers".^[98] Though there is further disagreement over exactly when the move took place, alumni accounts place it sometime in the 1930s or 1940s.^[99] The "Bomber" is not represented on the field in costumed form. Instead, the "Blue Monster" – a shaggy, Muppet-like mascot that takes its name from the student cheering section – appears at games wearing a Bomber football jersey.^[100][101]

St. Xavier has won a state championship in many of the sports in which it fields a team. The most decorated among these teams is the school's prestigious swimming and diving program, which has garnered considerable national respect. Known as the "Aquabombers", the team has won district, sectional and city-wide titles in every year since 1970, capturing 31 Ohio state championships during this span. In 2008, St. Charles Preparatory School of Columbus broke the Aquabombers' nine-year state title streak.^[102] The team has earned the distinction of Swimming World Magazine national high school swimming champions in 1973, 1992, 2001, and 2007.^[103] Headed by Coach Jim Brower, the Aquabombers produced Swimming World Magazine high school swimmers of the year Joe Hudepohl in 1992 and Jayme Cramer in 2001. Hudepohl was also a member of the United States Olympic Swim Team in 1992 and 1996 and still holds several school, state and national records in swimming.

Keating Natatorium is home to the St. Xavier Aquabombers and Cincinnati Marlins.

In addition to the swimming and diving program, the Bombers are also well-known for their football team. In 1999, the St. Xavier football team appeared on Team Cheerios cereal boxes, alongside St. Ignatius High School, in recognition of the schools' football and community service programs, as well as their records in the National Merit Scholarship Program.^[104] On December 3, 2005, under Coach Steve Specht, the Bombers defeated Massillon Washington High School to earn the 2005 state football title, the first in team history, after having finished as state runners-up in 1992, 1998 and 2001. The Bombers ended their season with a perfect record: undefeated in the regular season and the playoffs. For this occasion, the City of Cincinnati declared December 14, 2005 "St. Xavier High School Day".^[105] In 2007, the Bombers were rated first or second high school football team nationally in a number of pre-season rankings;^[106] the same year, St. Xavier defeated DeMatha Catholic High School in a game nationally televised on ESPN.^[107] St. Xavier went on to win their second state championship that year in a 27–0 victory against Mentor High School,^[108] as well as the National Prep Poll's mythical national championship. The football program's national exposure continued with losses against Highlands High School on CSTV in 2009^[29] and against Our Lady of Good Counsel High School the next year on ESPN.^[109]