"Let an academy be formed for the advancement of mathematics"

(Christopher Clavius, S.J. in 1596)

Clavius group at Fairfield University in 1998

Clavius group at Fairfield University in 1991 next to the renowned Clavius Townhouse

Clavius gatherings from 1987 to 1996

A list of Clavius mathematicians
A short history of the Clavius Group
The host colleges and institutes
The hosts according to year

Pertinent information about members of the Clavius Group

Clavius Activities at Notre Dame University in 1990
Clavius Activities at Fairfield University in 1991
Clavius Activities at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifique in 1992
Clavius Activities at Boston College in 1993
Clavius Activities at the Institute for Advanced Study IAS in 1994
Clavius Activities at Notre Dame University in 1995
Clavius Activities at Boston College in 1996
Clavius Activities at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifique in 1997
Clavius Activities at Fairfield University in 1998
Clavius Activities at Holy Cross in 1999
Clavius Activities at Notre Dame in 2000
Clavius Activities at the Institute for Advanced Study IAS in 2001
Clavius Activities at Fairfield University in 2002

A few Clavians in uniform

List of Clavius mathematicians

A short history concerning the Clavius Group

Christopher Clavius, S.J.
The Euclid of the Sixteenth Century

The Clavius Group was named for the sixteenth century German Jesuit mathematician, Christopher Clavius, a friend of Galileo, who developed today's Gregorian calendar.

The group began in 1963 when two American Jesuit mathematicians decided to spend the summer together at Georgetown University to discuss their professional work. Then other Jesuits and religious joined them in the succeeding summers. By 1970, a charter approved by the U.S. Jesuit provincials established the Jesuits of the Clavius Group as an inter-provincial summer community. In 1972, three families were invited to join the group at their meeting in Mexico City. Arriving for six weeks were three mathematical husbands, three non mathematical wives, and eight children ranging in age from three to thirteen.


Mathematics certainly got done, but many more dimensions were added to the group. Shared homilies quickly became the norm at evening Mass, with children frequently expressing their opinions in the dialogue homilies. The priests had to admit they had not heard the Old and New Testaments interpreted in so many ways. A daily schedule of mathematical seminars followed in the evening by Mass and a social hour soon evolved. Over the next several years other clergy and laity joined, with the basic schedule of work, Mass, and social hour remaining the same. Discussion groups formed on questions of theology, social action, and communion. Baptisms, First Communions, marriage renewals, wedding anniversaries and ordination jubilees have all been celebrated together.


The Clavius Group has taken seriously its obligation to bring the Good News to the professional mathematics world and to the surrounding lay community. Thus Masses have been said at international congresses and annual meetings of the American Mathematical Society as well as at small village churches. In the summer, daily Mass is a sharing experience which is the centerpiece of the work-day or play-day for all of the group. Several times each summer the children, under guidance, have planned readings and their own active parts in the liturgy of the Children's Mass. Travel has become second nature to this group. Summer gatherings have been at institutes, colleges, and universities in towns like Buressur Yvette (France), Montreal, Berkeley, Mexico City, Princeton, Worcester, Notre Dame, Boston, Fairfield, New Orleans. and Washington. The traveling has been valuable professionally and the children have benefited enormously in learning geography, history, and local cultures.


Seminars start up where they left off the year before. In these lectures members of the group or other mathematicians present their research work and collaborate in studying new areas, ranging from new discoveries to classical theories of the last century. Clavius members' research interests vary widely. Tom Banchoff's colorful computer animated films of four-dimensional geometry have been applauded by general audiences around the world. Fr. Whitman and Ron Knill work with Vatican Jesuit astrophysicist Fr. Bill Stoeger, S.J. in striving to pierce the captivating mysteries of the geometry of space-time.


Research by three other members on foliation's - geometric structures like the leaves of a twisted paperback book involves intriguing pictures but can be impenetrable to nonspecialists. Versatile Fr. Carlos Vasco, S.J., is a consultant of the government of Colombia on the school mathematics curriculum of that country. In the Dominican Republic, Fr. Paul Schweitzer, S.J., leads a research group at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and serves as a consultant for the Brazilian National Research Council.

Clavius Mass at the
Institute for Advanced Studies

Host college according to location

                                                                                                                                                 Clavius seminar at BC

Host college according to year

Clavius Group at the IAS in 1985