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AJC Statement on Truth and Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples

The Archive of the Jesuits in Canada (AJC) is committed to shedding light on the truth about the encounters and relationships between Jesuits and Indigenous communities. The AJC is committed to ensuring that its holdings that speak to Indigenous populations are available to Indigenous researchers.

The AJC leans on the Statement of Reconciliation of the Jesuits in English Canada enacted during the Truth and Reconciliation event held in Montreal on April 25, 2013. Pronounced by Winston Rye, S.J., speaking on behalf of the Jesuits in English Canada and addressed to Indigenous nations, the Act stipulates that we pledge our support in the rebuilding of your language and culture. We cannot undo the things that are done, but we can take positive and meaningful steps to rebuild.

We have opened our Archives so that the whole picture of the Residential Schools can be seen. We will unlock the doors to the ancient books that preserved the languages of the First Nations […] These precious resources will never be again the exclusive property of white scholars and academics.

We pledge our support in the rebuilding of your language and culture. We cannot undo the things that are done, but we can take positive and meaningful steps to rebuild.

In addition to drawing upon the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Calls to Action, the AJC takes into account the declarations and recommendations from various national and international instances to ameliorate archival practices that concern Indigenous populations. The AJC relies on the International Council of Archives’ Tandanya-Adelaide Declaration and on The Steering Committee on Canada’s Archives Reconciliation Framework Response to the Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Taskforce.

The AJC is committed to developing measures and methods anchored in the strategic orientations of the archival discipline and contemporary archival theory in order to transform archival practices, particularly regarding archival description and the sharing of information that concerns Indigenous peoples. Through its activities, services, and interventions, the AJC supports Indigenous resurgence.

Mission Statement

The Archive of the Jesuits in Canada witnesses the activity of all Jesuits who worked in this country and in its foreign missions since the arrival of the first companions in 1611. It recalls the memory of their living faith, of their efforts, of their spiritual values, and of their institutions.

The Archive serves the ongoing administration of the Jesuits of Canada which includes Haiti. Its role is also to ensure the acquisition of documents, books, and works of art as well as appropriate historical artifacts relating to Canadian Jesuit history: to preserve them, to render them accessible, and to make them known.

As steward of the collective memory of all Canadian Jesuits, the Archive demonstrates innovative leadership to facilitate access to its collections. It provides a functional working environment equipped with the resources necessary for research and creativity.

The Archive brings life to the past. It was established to encourage and, in the Jesuit way of proceeding, to stimulate free research and collaboration among scholars, teachers and students. It fosters the preparation of publications, symposia, and exhibitions which lead to a better understanding of Jesuit identity and of the Society’s cultural and spiritual patrimony.

History of The Archive of the Jesuits in Canada

This section presents milestones in the institutional history of The Archive of the Jesuits in Canada. Here, researchers can learn how the collection was built and discover how it reflects the Society of Jesus’ history in New France and Canada.

For more information, you can read the article written by John D. Meehan, S.J. on the historiography of Jesuits in Canada since 1842.

Cover page of a Relation written by Paul le Jeune, S.J.

The Mission

At first precarious, and subsequently established as a Mission, the early centuries of Jesuit presence in New France and Canada were administered by French Provinces.

Although a few original documents, including some dating back to the time of the Canadian Martyrs, remained in Quebec, most systematic reporting documents and the personal papers of returning missionaries were archived in the home Provinces in France. The documents that survived are therefore held largely at the Archives des jésuites de France in Vanves.

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.

Reuben Gold Thwaites, editor of The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents

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.

Maison Bellarmin, Archives reference room. Circa 2010.

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.

The Collection

The AJC provides an access point to its collections, as well as resources concerning the history of the Jesuits in Canada. It supports the research of members of the Jesuit community, genealogists, academic researchers, Indigenous researchers, artists, and students from a variety of disciplines.

The archival collection holds more than 1.5 km of textual records, more than 500,000 photographs, more than a thousand maps and cartographic material, hundreds of audio-visual records, as well as born-digital records.

The Library and Rare Books collection contains more than 37,000 books and other published material, including 1,500 rare books.

The Art and Artifacts Collection includes objects and artworks that testify to the range of activities of Jesuits in Canada and abroad.

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Library and Rare Books

The Library and Rare Books collection contains more than 37,000 books and other published material, including 1,500 rare books.

The collection reflects the activities of Francophone and Anglophone Jesuits on Canadian territory from the time of the Society’s arrival in New France in 1611 to the present day. The Library has been assembled from the collections of the former archives of the two Canadian Jesuit provinces, and from the collections of various Jesuit houses and institutions.

The Library acquires new materials in French and English. It also acquires old and rare books that relate to Canadian Jesuit history. The AJC Library is a rich collection that can be conveniently consulted in the Félix Martin, SJ Reading Room.

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Archival Holdings

The archival collection comprises individual Jesuits’ fonds as well as fonds and collections that testify to the various activities and presence of Jesuits of Canada on the Canadian territory as well as abroad. These historical records form more than 400 archival fonds and collections.

To search the archival holdings by keyword please use the search function below.

Arts & Artifacts