The first Jesuit to walk into the territory of what became the Wisconsin Province was Father Claude Allouez. He founded a mission on the shores of Lake Superior near present day Ashland, Wisconsin in 1660. French Jesuits soon had other mission sites at Green Bay, what would become Chicago, as well as many sites on the Great Lakes.

In 1701, French Jesuits extended their work further south to the area in Illinois across the Mississippi from present day St. Louis, as well as in the lower Mississippi Valley in New Orleans and Mobile. With the suppression of the Society in French territory in 1763, all of the Jesuits left but one, who was careful to stay on the English side of the river.

For administrative purposes, the Jesuits work in different geographic regions known as provinces. There are 84 provinces worldwide, 10 of them in the United States. A map of the United States shows which states comprise each province.

The Wisconsin Province consists of seven states in the Upper Midwest and Great Plains: Wyoming, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa , Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Province operations are totally dependent on the spiritual and financial generosity of friends and benefactors. Like Jesuits worldwide, Wisconsin Province Jesuits are devoted to accompanying others to Christ while cultivating and living a faith in which the promotion of justice is an absolute requirement. The service of faith and the promotion of justice constitute one and the same mission of the Society. They cannot, therefore, be separated one from the other in our purpose, our action, our life - this is the ministry whereby all our ministries are brought together in a unified whole.