The L. N. Schlechter, S. J. Collection contains the personal writings of a Jesuit priest in the late nineteenth century who served the Saint Louis area and its German community. Schlechter was associated with the local German Academy as well as St. Joseph’s Church in St. Louis, which served many German immigrants. His handwritten diaries, financial accounts, and sermon notebooks reflect on his religious practices and spiritual teachings, as well as his involvement with the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The notebooks also give insight into the expanding Jesuit activity in St. Louis in the second half of the nineteenth century at various institutions, including St. Joseph’s Church, St. Stanislaus Seminary in Florissant, and Saint Louis University. The collection also contains a set of reprint volumes of international Jesuit correspondence with news and reports about various missions from 1870-1871.