Served at St. Peter Parish in Charlotte; former director of Jesuit House of Prayer in Hot Springs
BALTIMORE — Jesuit Father Vincent de Paul Alagia was called to eternal life on Jan. 23, 2026, at the St. Claude La Colombière Jesuit Community in Baltimore. He was 99 years old, a Jesuit for 79 years, and a priest for 67 years.
The funeral Mass was celebrated Jan. 29, 2026, at the Colombiere Community Chapel. Interment was at Jesuit Cemetery in Woodstock, Maryland.
Father Alagia was born Jan. 12, 1927, in Baltimore. He attended Loyola Blakefield before entering the Society of Jesus at the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville, Pennsylvania, on July 28, 1946. After completing novitiate and classics studies, he studied philosophy at Woodstock College, earning a
Bachelor of Arts in 1952. He later returned to Woodstock for theological studies and was ordained to the priesthood there on June 22, 1958.
Following ordination, Father Alagia devoted himself to Jesuit secondary education and student formation. He served at Georgetown Preparatory School as a teacher of English and Latin (1960-1963), student counselor (1963-1966), and student counselor and spiritual father (1967-1970). While there, he earned a master’s degree in guidance from The Catholic University of America.
Beginning in the 1970s, Father Alagia’s ministry increasingly focused on retreats, spiritual direction and marriage spirituality. He served as a retreat director at Manresa-on-Severn in Annapolis, Maryland, and led many Marriage Encounter retreats in Maryland and Washington, D.C., through 1977. He then served as retreat director at the Jesuit Center for Spiritual Growth in Wernersville (1977-1978), Loyola on the Potomac Retreat House in Faulkner, Maryland (1978-1981), and the Jesuit House of Prayer in Hot Springs, North Carolina, where he was retreat director (1982-1986) and later director (1989-1999).
Father Alagia also ministered in parishes, providing spirituality ministry at St. Mary Parish in Johnson City, Tennessee, and St. Peter Parish in Charlotte, where he served for more than 10 years. In his later years, he served in pastoral ministry while residing at the St. Claude La Colombière Jesuit Community in Baltimore (2011-2016).
From 2016 onward, Father Alagia was missioned primarily to a ministry of prayer for the Church and the Society of Jesus, residing at Wernersville and later at Manresa Hall in Merion Station, Pennsylvania, before returning to Colombière in late 2025.
Father Alagia was known for his deep commitment to Ignatian Spirituality, his gentle pastoral presence, and his lifelong dedication to retreat ministry and spiritual accompaniment. Through decades of service as teacher, counselor, retreat director and spiritual guide, he helped countless people listen more attentively to God’s voice in their lives.
May he rest in the peace of Christ, whom he served faithfully with generosity and love for others.
Mitchell Wiedefeld Funeral Home, Inc., of Baltimore was in charge of the arrangements.
— Catholic News Herald