What is contained in the Archives?

Department of the archives consists of the archives of the Generalate and the records of the local houses. An inventory of the Archives of the Generalate has been completed up to 1966 and the Archives have been divided into eleven sections. The inventory of Archives of the Generalate can be consulted online.

The audio-visual section contains albums, slides, film material, photos, glass plates, postcards, negatives and videos.

The library contains works of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

There are also diverse collections which include devotional pictures, mortuary cards, objects of art and implements from Africa, Asia and Europe, costumes of the sisters, plans and designs, religious objects, paintings, etchings, lithographs, etc.

Importance of the archives

These archives are of particular interest in researching 19th Century Congregations. The Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary was one of the first foundations after the French Revolution and it also became one of the largest congregations in the country. At the end of the 19th century it was among the first congregations of women to establish missionary foundations. It provides a fairly typical example of congregations of its time in respect of its foundation history, ideas, practical organisation and fields of apostolate.

The well furnished archives allow a close research of the foundation history, showing how the Congregation evolved and developed during the political turbulence of the first half of the 19th Century.

For those interested in studying how the religious thinking and spiritual life of a congregation of women evolved, these archives provide interesting material. This material includes the various editions of the Constitutions and the Rule, their adaptations to changing circumstances and Church legislation, the prayer books, books of devotion, spiritual writings of the superiors and the sisters, etc.

There is also useful material here for the historian wanting to do some research on institutions. The clear-cut structures and hierarchy in the convent, the response of the authorities of the Congregation to external circumstances, the handling of this by the members and the influence of the rank and file on those in authority can all be verified.

The files and registers concerning the sisters, the financial and economic archives, and the reports on the functioning of the convents all make it possible to approach the history of the Congregation in a measurable and statistical manner.

The archives are also important for the recording of social history. The institutions of the Congregation are all involved in the health care and education sectors. The archives of the Generalate contain a series of general files on these topics and therefore provide a valuable addition to the particular archives (records) of the institutions. Some personal archives of Sisters who did a pioneering job in the field of education and health care contain some interesting data.

Quite a lot of material is preserved in the archives concerning the missionary activity of the Congregation, particularly in relation to the Congo, but also in relation to India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. This includes letters written by missionary sisters, which contain a wealth of information for some research on the historical motivation underpinning the various missionary activities.

The archives also provide interesting material from the perspective of architecture and history-of-art. They contain many building plans and designs, together with correspondence and invoices from artists who looked after the exterior and interior decoration of the buildings.

Sections in the archives

The archives are divided into different sections: