Mount St. Francis Christian Brothers Archives

• Congregation of Christian Brothers Archives

• Religioso

The Congregation of Christian Brothers was founded in Ireland in 1802 by Edmund Ignatius Rice, who devoted his wealth to found free schools for poor boys. His first group of brothers became a religious congregation in 1808 under the guidance of Bishop Power of Waterford. As the new religious congregation grew, even with meager resources, it responded with urgency and relevancy to the many needs and calls that presented themselves. On 5 September 1820 Pope Pius VII granted the petition of Brother Edmund Ignatius Rice and approved the “Society of Religious Brothers” as a pontifical congregation authorized to educate youth according to the maxims of the Christian law.

Brother Rice was elected Superior General at the first General Chapter of the Congregation in 1822. He was beatified in Rome by Pope John Paul II on 6 October 1996. The more recent Rules and Constitutions of the Congregation of Christian Brothers were approved on 14 September 1996 by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life in Rome, Italy. Congregational archives are authorized by Article 89.1 of the 1996 the Constitutions and Statutes of the Christian Brothers.

The Archives are located in Mount St. Francis, the private residence in St. John’s of the Christian Brothers. The address of Mount St. Francis is 4 Merrymeeting Road, St. John’s, NL, A1C 6K8. There are three rooms assigned to the Archives. These rooms are located on the third floor of the Monastery. One room contains the records, the second, the office; and the third, storage room.

The Archival Collection includes manuscripts, yearbooks, photographs, personnel lists, publications, chapters’ decisions, and other pertinent material that documents the history of the Canadian Vice-Province and the Canadian Province (Canada and the West Indies) of the Congregation of Christian Brothers from 1963 to 2005.

Reference Material Document/Finding Guide is available to researcher(s).

Because the Christian Brothers Archives are located in the private residence of the Christian Brothers, public access to the archives will not be possible.

Requests by researchers for appointments for access to materials in the archives should be made to the Archivist by email (gordonbellows@live.ca). Please do not phone for an appointment. The emailed request should contain the name and email of the researcher as well as specific information about the proposed research subject matter. The Archivist will respond by email to any request for appointments. Appointments will be ordinarily scheduled from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at Mount St. Francis. At the initial appointment, the researcher will have an opportunity to examine the requested reference material and, if desired, arranged an appropriate schedule with the Archivist to complete his/her research objective. No archival material may be taken from Mount St. Francis.

Revised - July 18, 2014

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