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Loyola University Chicago Jesuit Heritage Research Center
AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CENTER IN THE COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
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A close-up of two pages of a manuscript of St. Ignatius' spiritual exercises written in Latin

Resources

See below to explore research and archive collections at Loyola University Chicago and beyond.

Archives

For a published guide, please see A Guide to Jesuit Archives by Thomas M. McCoog, S.J.

Global

Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu

The Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI) holds the archives of the central government of the Jesuits. ARSI is a valuable source of information for local history, but in the way this was linked to the central governament. Over the years, ARSI has launched several digitization projects with the aim of making materials available to researchers. This concerns both essential repertoires for research, but also published texts or digitizations of sources.

VISIT ARSI

British Jesuit Archives

The British Jesuit Archives primarily holds records relating to the Jesuits in Britain. The collection contains papers relating to the administration of the British Province by the Provincial Curia as well as personal papers and correspondence of dead members of the Province.

It includes records of Jesuit communities, of Province works, and material relating to the overseas missionary work of the Province including South Africa and Guyana. It also has a few deposited collections such as The Cause of the English and Welsh Martyrs; records relating to the Jesuit Chaplains at New Hall, Chelmsford donated by the Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Plater College (formerly Catholic Workers' College) archives.

The Archive includes a collection of antiquarian books consisting of works by members of the Province and those defined as being important for the post-Reformation history of Catholicism in Britain and/or the history and spirituality of the Society.

VISIT THE BRITISH JESUIT ARCHIVES

Jesuit Archives - Province of France

Located in Paris and Louvain, the Jesuit archives services collect, classify, preserve, communicate and promote the archives of the French-speaking Western Europe Province. The preserved documents reflect the activity of the Society of Jesus in France, Belgium and Luxembourg, from the 17th century to today.

VISIT THE JESUIT ARCHIVES - PROVINCE of FRANCE

Jesuit Archives - Central Europe

View the archives and collections from across the Central Europe Province of the Society of Jesus.

Jesuit Archives KU Leuven

The Jesuit Archives at KU Leuven hosts the archives of the Jesuits of the Low Countries, including documents, photographs, and films. The chronological focus is on the 19th and 20th centuries, but some items date back to the 16th century. Also available through KU Leuven's collection is the Archives of the Belgian and Flemish Jesuit provinces, the Archives 'Province Belge MéridionalE' (wallonia) and Luxemburg Jesuit Province, the Archives of the Dutch Jesuit province, and a Jesuitica book collection.

VISIT THE KU LEUVEN ARCHIVES

European Jesuit Libraries Provenance Project

The European Jesuit Libraries Provenance Project is the largest census of books owned by European Jesuit institutions prior to the suppression.  It includes both texts currently held in libraries and information from pre-1773 inventories, and is an ongoing project created and led by academics at Georgia Southern University

VISIT THE EUROPEAN JESUIT LIBRARIES PROVENANCE PROJECT

Jesuit Historical Institute in Africa

Jesuit Historical Institute in Africa (JHIA) is an institute geared to preserving memory and promoting historical knowledge.  It was started in 2010 as an idea of the Superior General of the Jesuits, Most Rev. Adolfo Nicolás, S.J., to encourage the study of his Order’s largely unexplored involvement in the evangelization of Africa.

VISIT JHIA

North America

Jesuit Archives / Archives des Jésuites Canada (Montreal)

The Archive of the Jesuits in Canada is the official repository for the historical records of the Jesuits of Canada, including Haiti, the former Province du Canada français de la Compagnie de Jésus, and Jesuits in English Canada.

VISIT THE ARCHIVE OF THE JESUITS IN CANADA

Jesuit Archives and Research Center

Since its opening in late 2017, the Jesuit Archives and Research Center (JARC) in St. Louis Missouri has become the repository holding the archives of all the Jesuit providences in the United States. This centralization has vastly improved possibiities for those researching American Jesuit history.

VISIT THE JARC

Marquette University Archives - American Indians Repository

The Marquette University Archives - American Indians Repository includes post-Columbian collections encompassing Indians/ Indigenous peoples of North, South and Central America, the bulk of which pertain to the Catholic Church and Native American people in the United States since 1874.

VISIT THE MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES - AMERICAN INDIANS REPOSITORY

Chicago

Loyola University Chicago Archives and Special Collections

Established in 1938, the mission of the Loyola University Chicago Archives & Special Collections is to serve as the University's institutional memory by collecting, preserving, and making accessible the history of Loyola University Chicago, and as an educational resource for the Loyola community and beyond by providing unique archival collections and rare books for study and teaching. The Loyola Archives & Special Collections currently holds over 15,000 linear feet of archival collections focusing on Chicago history, Catholic and Jesuit history, United States history, business, university history, politics, civil rights, and entertainment, among other subjects. Considered one of the major collections of Jesuitica in the United States, it is internationally recognized.

VISIT LOYOLA'S ARCHIVES

Edward A. Cudahy Jesuitica Collection

Among the many treasures housed in Loyola’s Archives and Special Collections is the Edward A. Cudahy Jesuitica Collection. This treasure trove, originally established and funded by Edward Aloysius Cudahy, Jr.,1 includes numerous rare books and documents connected to Jesuits spanning nearly 500 years. (Two of its most valuable items are an extremely rare first edition of St. Ignatius Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises published in 1548; and a rare Life of Christ in Chinese by the Jesuit missionary Giulio Aleni and published in 1637.2) These items, published in various languages (both ancient and vernacular) with provenance from numerous places across the globe, exhibit many genres: several editions of the Spiritual Exercises; sermons for funerals and other occasions; mathematical and scientific treatises; 17th-century accounts of Jesuits condemned to execution for alleged sedition; anti-Jesuit treatises; and various catalogues of libraries auctioned after the global suppression of the Jesuits in 1773.

VISIT THE COLLECTION

Loyola University Chicago and Newberry Library Collection

Loyola University Chicago's University Libraries co-owns a number of artifacts of Jesuit history in partnership with the Newberry Library.

VISIT THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY COLLECTION

See below to explore research and archive collections at Loyola University Chicago and beyond.

Archives

For a published guide, please see A Guide to Jesuit Archives by Thomas M. McCoog, S.J.

Global

North America

Chicago