Rev. Salvador R. Jordan, SJ, was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on July 14, 1942. He attended Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C, and entered the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville, Pa., in 1962. He received his bachelor’s degree in Psychology from St. Joseph’s College in Philadelphia and went on to earn a Bachelor of Sacred Theology and a Master of Divinity, both from Regis College in Toronto. He also became a registered nurse from St. Mary’s Junior College in Minneapolis. He was ordained a priest on June 4, 1977, at Loyola College in Maryland.
Following ordination, Fr. Jordan spent two years counseling at the Casa del Carmen social services center in Philadelphia before becoming director of the Spiritual Exercises at Loyola on the Potomac retreat house, where he served for six years. After a 2-year Tertianship at Wernersville, he served pastorally for eight years at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. As a registered nurse with training in psychology, he started one of the hospital’s first support groups for patients with AIDS.
In 1993, Fr. Jordan became minister and pastor at St. Ignatius Church in Port Tobacco, MD, the oldest Catholic parish in continuous service in the United States, where he served for 12 years. He then went on a short sabbatical for studies at the Mexican-American Center in San Antonio, TX.
Fr. Jordan moved to St Raphael the Archangel Church in Raleigh, NC, in 2007 where he served as associate pastor for two years before completing a year of pastoral work at the Jesuit Center for Spiritual Growth in Wernersville. In 2010, he returned to MedStar Georgetown University Hospital as chaplain for eight years.
Fr. Jordan began his mission of praying for the Church and the Society of Jesus in 2018, first at the Murray-Weigel Jesuit Community in the Bronx, then at the Colombière Jesuit Community in Baltimore, and finally at Manresa Hall in Philadelphia, where he passed away on December 11, 2021, at the age of 79.