Fr. Manglaviti was born in 1943 and raised on a farm in northeast Pennsylvania. He has a BA from Fordham University and an MA and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in English. His specialization is James Joyce, and has also published extensively on Faulkner, Tolkien and Hopkins. He has also written on the lives of saints and aspects of theology, as well as the local history of indigenous people in Pennsylvania.

Fr. Manglaviti spent much of his adult life teaching at Penn State University Scranton before joining the Society of Jesus in 1993. He was ordained in 1999. He has served at St. Ignatius Parish at Boston College and in English language parishes in Amman, Jordan and Beirut, Lebanon. He also possesses certification in spiritual direction from the Center for Religious Development in Cambridge, MA.

Fr. Manglaviti has also worked with college students for several years at Boston College, moderating a Christian Life Community there, engaging in Islamic dialogue, and offering counseling and spiritual direction for young men and women. Immediately before coming to Storrs, Fr. Manglaviti will have completed his final year of Jesuit formation ---tertianship---in Australia, where he managed a small rural parish, directed the “retreat in daily life”, and spent a month with street folks and refugees in an inner city Jesuit parish in Sydney.