About

The Collège des Jésuites

The Collège des Jésuites was established in 1635 in Quebec City. The most important documents of the Old Society were kept here.

In 1773, the Society of Jesus was suppressed worldwide by papal brief. However, under British rule since 1763, the Bishop of Quebec permitted the Jesuits to remain but did not allow them to recruit new members.

Jean-Joseph Casot, S.J.

One by one, the Jesuits of the Old Society passed away—with the death of the last Jesuit, Jean-Joseph Casot, in 1800. Before his death, Father Casot had quietly entrusted some of the Jesuits’ most precious documents to the Hospital Sisters of the Hôtel-Dieu in Quebec City.

Upon the death of Father Casot, the state seized all Jesuit properties, including the archival documents and books from the Collège des Jésuites. These languished in storage, many disappeared and some were eventually passed to the custody of Université Laval and later to the Musée de la civilization, where they remain today.

Félix Martin, S.J.

In 1842, after the restoration of the Society in 1814, and at the invitation of Bishop Ignace Bourget, eight Jesuit companions including Father Félix Martin, arrived in Montreal.

In 1844, the Hospital Sisters of the Hôtel-Dieu in Quebec City returned the Jesuit documents that had been in their care to the Jesuit Superior, Father Martin. The founding of our current Jesuit Archive is sometimes attributed to this important gesture.

St. Mary’s College

In 1848, Father Martin founded Collège Sainte-Marie (St. Mary’s College) in Montreal. The documents returned to Father Martin then formed the archival collection housed at the College—which is now the Collection des Archives du Collège Sainte-Marie.

As the founder of this collection, Father Martin, often supported by Jacques Viger, began an active acquisition program designed to restore at least some of the Jesuits’ patrimony. He commissioned colleagues in Rome to acquire books and launched a copying program for relevant documents found in the repositories of Paris, Rome, Saint-Malo and others.

Father Martin’s legacy

Father Martin returned to France in 1861, but continued to send his research and transcribed documents back to Montreal.

Other Jesuits were assigned to the position of Custos archivorum. They engaged in acquisition, preservation, preparation of catalogs and indexes, the identification of handwriting and authentication.

Arthur E. Jones, S.J.

When the Quebec government addressed the issue of the Jesuit Estates in 1885, the theologian and canonist Arthur E. Jones, S.J., was given the responsibility for the archival collection at St. Mary’s College. He inherited an archive that was physically and organizationally attached to the library. With his concern for the juridical role of documents, he worked to separate the archive from the library and succeeded in forming a distinct unit in 1892.

Promotion and Diffusion

Father Jones had strategic views on how to best use the archival holdings. When Reuben Gold Thwaites set about to publish an annotated translation of the Jesuit Relations into English, Father Jones not only acted as advisor to Thwaites, he also ensured that unpublished and connected documents would be included in the monumental publication.

To make the Jesuits’ legacy better known, Father Jones exhibited the most important and significant archival records of the Jesuits of Canada at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis in 1904, and then in Chicago.

From Mission to Province

Between 1879 and 1907, Canada was designated an independent Jesuit Mission. In 1907, it became the Jesuit Province of Canada. In 1924, it was divided into the Province du Bas-Canada and the Vice Province of Upper Canada.

With this division, only essential records pertaining to the current English Canada administration were transferred to the Curia in Toronto. The historical Collection des Archives du Collège Sainte-Marie was left intact. Given that the administration of the Province du Bas-Canada was also located at the college, both historical and administrative records were housed there.

Changes in Quebec

Upon the passing of Father Jones, Arthur Melançon, S.J., was assigned responsibility for the Archive. He was succeeded by Paul Desjardins, S.J. in 1940. As the volume of documents outgrew assigned spaces in Collège Sainte-Marie, the archival storage was moved to the adjoining Gesù—primarily into the upper floors of the church towers in 1949.

Upper Canada

During the period of the Vice Province of Upper Canada (1924-1939) and the early years of the new Province, documents were located in the Provincial’s office, at the Shrine of the Canadian Martyrs and in various Jesuit communities and apostolates. First, Frederick Noll, S.J., then Thomas Lally, S.J., James McGivern, S.J., Edward Dowling, S.J., and Francis Nelligan, S.J., were successively assigned responsibility for records—although no formal archival institution was yet established.

Saint-Jérôme, Quebec

With the secularization of education in Quebec, Collège Sainte-Marie was closed in 1969 and subsequently the building was demolished.

The Archive serving the Province du Canada français was moved to Notre-Dame-de-Montserrat in Saint-Jérôme in 1968. Jesuits assigned to the Archive were Joseph-Albert Cossette and Robert Toupin, with assistance from lay professional staff beginning in the 1990s.

The Province du Bas-Canada became the Province du Canada français in 1968.

Regis College, Willowdale

For the Jesuits in Upper Canada, an ‘archives room’ was included in the newly-built Regis College in Willowdale, Ontario. Here, Jacques Monet, S.J., then a Scholastic, received his first archival assignment.

This would be followed by many other assignments, and would lead eventually to a long affiliation and key role in ensuring the establishment of our current Archive in Montreal.

Toronto area moves

The Jesuits moved in 1976 to central Toronto in conjunction with the federation of Regis College with the University of Toronto. The archives however, were taken to the Provincial’s residence for temporary storage until space was ready at the relocated Regis College in 1981.

Once operational, the new ‘Archives Room’ received numerous scholarly researchers. In 1988, Patrick Boyle, S.J. was named Director of Province Archives.

Archives of the Province of Upper Canada

Father Boyle remained Director of Archives until 1999, and oversaw the move of the archives to the new location of the Provincial Curia on Bay Street in Toronto. He was succeeded by Jacques Monet, S.J. in 1999. Father Monet was instrumental in the planning of the next facility, to be located in Montreal in conjunction with the Archive of the Province du Canada français.

The Archive of the Jesuits in Canada

Collections were consolidated with the founding of The Archive of the Jesuits in Canada located in Montreal. This included records of the former Jesuits of English Canada and those of the Province du Canada français (including Haiti). Records previously held in Toronto were moved to Montreal, as were those formerly in Saint-Jérôme.

In 2018, a new Province was founded to include all Canadian Jesuits. The Archive of the Jesuits in Canada is responsible for all previous historical holdings and for ongoing additions from the Province administration, apostolates, Jesuits’ personal papers and some related organizations and activities associated with the Jesuits of Canada.