If you’ve been around the Franciscan community, you’ve no doubt seen Rev. Nathan Malavolti, TOR, with a smile on his face. This joyful priest wears many hats at Franciscan, serving as not only a friar but also as a professor of chemistry, ministering to students both in and out of the classroom.
But while I see Rev. Malavolti frequently, I, and many others, don’t really know him. I didn’t know he was a chemistry professor until just recently. For this reason, I sat down with Rev. Malavolti for an interview and, in doing so, discovered the blessing he is to our community.
Nathan Lee Malavolti was born in a small town in Illinois, the fourth of five children to Catholic parents. His father was a lifelong Catholic, while his mother was a convert from Methodist Protestantism. Despite this, he never attended a Catholic school and remarked on the struggles he had with his faith as a young man.
“In college and grad school I struggled with my faith,” Malavolti said. “At times I felt Catholic but went after the wrong things. Now at this point in my life I delight in God’s mercy — he called me back. And that’s why I love to work with college students now, to remind them that God’s mercy is always available.”
Chemistry became Malavolti’s first love. He credits his high school chemistry teachers with giving him the love for it and recalls the path he went on toward eventually getting his doctorate.
“During my undergrad, I had a lot of contact with some wonderful chemistry professors,” he remarked. “I was going to stop after my bachelor’s degree, but they inspired me to go on. They said, ‘If you can get a doctorate, you can go on to work in research or industry or government or education as a chemistry teacher.’”
And that was exactly what he did, receiving his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1986.
Following graduation, the newly christened Dr. Malavolti began his work not in teaching but as an industrial research chemist – his first project being on the absorbency of diapers, and testing if certain polymers would increase or decrease their absorbency. However, it was around this time that tragedy struck Malavolti’s life, and through that tragedy came his return to embracing Catholicism.
“In grad school, I tragically lost a brother. The death of a loved one sometimes really sets you back and makes you remember what’s important,” he reflected. “In grad school, my sister introduced me to people in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, and I went to my first Catholic conference where I heard about people like Fr. Michael Scanlan and others. I started to be part of a prayer group, and as part of this prayer group I was encouraged to go on a retreat called a ‘Crucio Weekend’ and it really made me think I had to take my faith seriously.
“I ended up going to Medjugorje in 1988, and it was a powerful experience to meet with Our Lord and His Mother. As far as the apparitions, I’ll leave that for the Church to decide. But I really fell in love with the Lord again.”
Following the pilgrimage, something else began brewing in Malavolti’s faith life. He started feeling a call to the priesthood, and it was through this call that he discovered Franciscan University for the first time. He joined the Priestly Discernment Program, which was in only its second year of existence at Franciscan, as a graduate student. It was the same program he would go on to lead as coordinator many years later.
This was the Pre-Theologate Program, now known as Koinonia. “I came to Franciscan and joined the program in 1988,” he said. “And it’s funny that all that time later, I’m the program’s priest coordinator! I am so blessed!”
Continuing on his priestly discernment, Malavolti reflected, “It was during that year I met the TORs, and I was discerning if God wanted me to go back to Illinois to be a diocesan priest. But I have to admit, I’ve always been drawn to community life and wanting spiritual brothers. I was blessed by a wonderful campus minister in grad school when I lost my brother, and I’ve always thought I wanted to do campus ministry as well as teach.
“So my vocation director at the time told me, ‘God’s given you a doctorate in chemistry; why don’t you look for places where you can teach and serve at a university?’ So I looked at the Jesuits, Dominicans, and Benedictines and sized them all up, but meeting the TORs was what made me say ‘This is where I belong.’”
Malavolti entered the order soon after and was ordained a priest in 2005.
Following his ordination, he served for eight years at St. Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania. In 2013, he returned to Franciscan, not as a teacher, but as vice president of pastoral care. However, the desire to return to the classroom remained. That desire was made possible in 2019, when Rev. Dave Pivonka became the university’s president.
“When Fr. Dave became president in 2019, I said, ‘man, I’d love to get back in the classroom.’ There was an opening in the chemistry department that year, so I was able to return to teaching. I feel blessed that I have not as full of a load as some of the other professors, as I’m saying Masses, hearing confessions, and doing other pastoral work in addition to teaching.”
When asked his favorite part of teaching, Malavolti answered, “There’s something you share of yourself when you teach your knowledge to others. Sometimes, people think ‘oh, chemistry’s so hard, I’ll never be good at it’ and it’s a real joy when you see the lights come on and you see them say ‘wait, this isn’t hard, I understand this. This helps me understand the world and how it works.’
“I’ve also taught nursing chemistry, and I got to tell those nurses how chemistry is important to understanding how this body of ours, which is a miracle, works. That to me is still a thrill. I mean, these are just wonderful students. I have a lot of wonderful colleagues who are on fire with love, too. And that’s such a blessing. Franciscan is such a wonderful place, I learned that back in ‘88. The students are who make me feel so blessed to be here.”
“I sometimes feel like I have my foot in two worlds;” he continued, “the chemistry world and also the pastoral world, and I feel blessed that I get to balance those two. Scientists have always been people of faith. You think how much the Catholic Church has influenced science: you have people like Gregor Mendel and genetics, Fr. Georges Lemaitre and the Big Bang Theory. The Church supports reason and science.”
I ended the interview by asking Rev. Malavolti about what he hoped his legacy at Franciscan would be. He paused for a moment, then gave his answer:
“I mainly hope that people say that when they encountered Fr. Nathan, they met a joyful, loving priest who loved the Lord and loved people. I know I’m not the best preacher, I’m not the holiest priest, I’m not the best professor. But I hope that people see me as a priest who knows them, loves them, and cares for them. It may sound trite, but I mean it.”