Regis University (formerly known as Regis College) is a private, co-educational Roman Catholic, Jesuit university in the United States. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1877, it is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. Based in Denver, Colorado, Regis University is divided into three colleges: Regis College, The Rueckert-Hartman College for Health Professions, and the College for Professional Studies. Regis University was established by a group of exiled Italian Jesuits in 1877 in Las Vegas, New Mexico. That institution was named Las Vegas College. In 1884, the Bishop of Denver invited the Jesuits to create a college at Morrison where Sacred Heart College was opened. In 1887, the two colleges merged and moved once again to the present location of Regis University. The name from then on was College of the Sacred Heart. In 1921 it adopted the name of Regis College in honor of Saint John Francis Regis, a 17th century Jesuit who worked with prostitutes and the poor in the mountains of Southern France.