The Spiritan congregation, founded in France in 1703 before merging with François Libermann’s congregation of the Holy Heart of Mary in 1848, now recruits many of its number from Africa and the Global South. Its story parallels that of global Catholicism, where clergy from Africa and Asia now flow to Europe to fill empty pulpits.
In 2023, the Sisters of the Visitation of the Holy Mary left their Philadelphia monastery, but ensured their history would be preserved by sending their archives to Georgetown Visitation Monastery. Among the collection is a scrapbook chronicling their dramatic journey from Mexico to the U.S., offering rare insight into a cloistered community shaped by exile, hardship, and enduring faith.
The Heart comes from the Plantagenet burial ground located in the old Abbey of Fontevrault, near Saumur. The cemetery was disturbed during the 1793 French Revolution when the tombs were destroyed and the graves dug up in search of treasure.
Fr. Heurtel’s letters, dated from 1841 to 1850, are among the earliest documents chronicling the Catholic Mission in Hawaii and evangelization efforts in the Pacific region.
The Archdiocese of Saint Louis’s mission to Bolivia, which lasted from 1956 until 2021, was the first international mission untertaken by an American diocese. The Archdiocese’s Mission Office Records illustrate the cross-cultural experiences of its many White American diocesan priests through correspondence and photographs.
This week, we explore two noteworthy collections from the Archdiocese of New Orleans: The Archbishop Joseph Rummel Collection and the sacramental registers Collection.
The Joseph H. Fichter, S.J. Papers document the life and work of the prominent priest, scholar, and social reformer. Born in 1908 in New Jersey, Joseph Fichter entered the New Orleans province of the Society of Jesus in 1930 and was ordained in 1942. He received a Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard in 1947 and …
This week we explore the letters of Srs. Madeleine Sophie and Mary Frances, who each served as dean of Xavier University of Louisiana as many of their students went off to fight in World War II.
Our #HiddenCatholicCollection this week highlights a collection held in the Redemptorist Archives in Philadelphia about a devotional object which has managed to captivate pilgrims and skeptics alike: the Shroud of Turin.
The Robert H. Lord papers held by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston span the years 1842 to 1988. The collection consists of handwritten and typed correspondence, manuscripts and drafts, research materials, sermons, notes, and photographs.
This week’s #HiddenCatholicCollections features the Jesuit mission to Zambia, undertaken by the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), from 1946-1969. Zambia (Northern Rhodesia) was the third overseas mission for Irish Jesuits, after Australia (1865) and Hong Kong (1926), and was initially called the Chikuni Mission.
The David Goldstein and Martha Moore Avery papers relate mainly to their association with and disavowal of Socialism, their conversion to Catholicism, and their subsequent lecture tours.
Clericus is a digital humanities research project that aims to develop a database on the Irish clerical population for the early modern and modern periods.
The Adorers of the Blood of Christ were founded in Italy in 1834. In 1870, a group of Adorers from Baden, Germany came to the United States. In 1876, with Clementine Zerr as their leader, the group moved to Ruma in rural southern Illinois, a place that would eventually house its first U.S. motherhouse.
The World War II collection at the Daughters of Charity Archives, Province of St. Louise documents the American community and its efforts to assist the refugees of the War alongside the Catholic War Relief Services on the European front and its sisters’ time as nurses in the interior of China on the Pacific front.
This week we feature the papers of Sister Marie Augusta Neal, SNDdeN (1921-2004), sociologist and Chair for the Sociology Department at Emmanuel College, Boston, MA.
In the 100-plus years since Sacred Heart Church was established, parish groups and organizations have served their community. As society and societal realities have changed over the years, Sacred Heart has responded, in part, through their parish organizations and service groups.
This week’s #HiddenCatholicCollection focuses on the North American Agency Papers preserved in the archives of the Venerable English College (VEC) in Rome, the oldest British institution outside the United Kingdom.
A special Holy Week edition of #HiddenCatholicCollection: a Stations of the Cross series created by Sr. Mary of the Compassion of the Society of the Perpetual Rosary of Union City, NJ, held at the Mary Nona McGreal, OP, Center for Dominican Historical Studies.
Dominican Brother Edward Doyle, O.P. served as a Chaplain with the U.S. Army’s 104th Infantry Division during World War II. His papers principally relate to the 40th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion and the 1st U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council International Liberators Conference.
This week we’ll take a look at a 417 piece pre-Vatican II music collection, dating from 1864 to 1964.
Discover the papers of Sr. Gretchen Bogan, CSJ (1915-1999), a talented playwright, poet, artist and teacher, in the collection of the Boston CSJ Archives.
The collection catalogues the order’s history from its founding in Le Puy, France in 1650 to its present-day home in London, Ontario.
The Archives of the Church of the Sacred Heart, South Plainfield, New Jersey is a professionally curated and processed collection documenting over 110 years of parish history and service to the community.
Conventual Franciscan Friars first arrived in the US in 1852 to serve German-speaking immigrants around Galveston, Texas. The Province of Our Lady of Consolation was founded in 1926 by Friars en route to Buffalo who were told to report to Carey, OH instead.
This week we explore the archives of Our Lady of Victory Missionary Sisters, commonly known as Victory Noll Sisters, an order of Catechists based in Indiana who provided religious education, social services and health care in the Southwest from the 1920s.
This week we highlights the papers of Society for the Divine Word missionary Harold Rigney, SVD (1900-1980) teacher of paleontology in Ghana, author of book recounting his imprisonment and torture in communist China, and beloved administrator. His experiences became the subject of the book Four Years in a Red Hell (1956).
Our #HiddenCatholicCollection this week features the papers of Servite Father James M. Keane, O.S.M. (1901-1975), founder of the Novena in Honor of Our Sorrowful Mothers, sponsor of a full-length film of Solemn High Mass, and host of the weekly telecast “Behold thy Mother.”
Housed in the Archives of the North American Province of the Assumptionists in the Provincial House in Boston, MA, the Moscow Mission Collection contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, photos, video reels, baptism & marriage certificates, etc. spanning this time period. Due to the destruction of religious documents within the USSR, researchers of the religious presence in the USSR rely on collections outside of Russia, and the Assumptionists’ has been considered one of the largest extant collections of its kind.
The Archives of the Society of the Sacred Heart, United States-Canada Province include documents and visuals about the mission, ministry, governance and life of the Religious of the Sacred Heart in North America.
Our Hidden Catholic Collection this week is the Joseph P. Mobberly, SJ Papers in Georgetown University’s Booth Family Center for Special Collections. The papers provide insight into Jesuit slaveholding during the early national period (1815-1827). The collection consists of the memoirs, observations, and expositions of a Jesuit who worked principally as manager of St. Inigoes, a Jesuit house and plantation in St. Mary’s County, Maryland.
Our Hidden Catholic Collection this week returns to the Sisters of St. Joseph Archive in Rochester, NY to highlight the papers of Rev William H Shannon (1917-2012), founding president of the International Thomas Merton Society and professor at Nazareth College, Rochester.
Our Hidden Catholic Collection this week documents the long and complicated relationship of Native Americans and the Catholic Church. An excellent starting point: the Special Collections and University Archive at Marquette University.
This week’s Hidden Catholic Collection is the library of Thomas Merton (1915-1968). The Merton Center at Bellarmine University has been scanning and making available online the marginalia within Merton’s books.
The Sisters of the Precious Blood, founded in 1834 by Mother Maria Anna Brunner, are an active apostolic congregation ministering to the needs of the times.
Our Hidden Catholic Collection this week reveals the extensive Sisters of the Holy Family Collection at Santa Clara University Archives & Special Collections. The Order was founded by Sr. Elizabeth Dolores Armer (1850-1905) to provide home and child care services, catechism instruction, and social services for underprivileged communities.
Our Hidden Catholic Collection this week is the papers of the Santa Maria Institute, a ground-breaking Catholic social service center founded by the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati to help immigrants to the Queen City.
Our Hidden Catholic Collection this week shares the papers of Sr Mary Ignatia Gavin (1889-1966), Sister of Charity of St. Augustine (CSA), an early advocate of Alcoholics Anonymous.
This week’s Hidden Catholic Collection is the Selma, Alabama Collection in the Sisters of St. Joseph Archive in Rochester, NY. It documents the Sisters’ service in Selma from 1940 to the present including work at Good Samaritan Hospital during 1965 voting rights marches.
Our Hidden Catholic Collection this week highlights the personal papers of Marianne Reilly (1804-1895), a lay Catholic woman living in rapidly growing early 19th century Cincinnati, now held at the Archdiocese of Cincinnati Archives.
