Fr. Jordan Zajac was born and raised in the seaside city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he, his parents, and younger sister Christina were active parishioners at St. James Church. He graduated summa cum laude from Providence College, where he majored in English and minored in Political Science. Having fallen in love with the intellectual life he experienced at Providence, he went on to the University of Virginia for his Master’s degree in English. He then earned a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, specializing in Shakespearean Drama. His dissertation examined the social significance of recreational eating and drinking on the English Renaissance stage. “The air of Dominican life feels right in my lungs: taking in the Word through prayer and study, then expressing Him through the common life and preaching.”