Catholic Religious Archives

Mother Kevin Kearney, OSF, founder of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa

Ursuline sisters outside their convent in Waterville, Maine, 1912

The Catholic Religious Archives at Boston College works to collect, process, and make accessible records, photographs, artifacts, and ephemera from congregations of men and women Catholic Religious in the United States and Canada. Our goal is to preserve for generations to come these congregations’ unique histories, important stories, and irreplaceable contributions to Catholic Religious and secular life and institutions throughout North America and beyond.

Construction of the new facility for the archives on the Brighton Campus of Boston College will begin in January 2025, while processing of deposited collections continues.

The Catholic Religious Archives is a presidential initiative administered through Boston College Libraries. For further information, please contact Associate Director Michael J. Burns: email or call (617) 552-8846.

Deposited Collections

Sisters of Saint Chretienne, United States Region (aka Sisters of the Holy Infancy of Jesus and Mary)
Ursulines of the Roman Union, Central Province
Dominican Nuns of Corpus Christi Monastery
Religious of Christian Education
Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa
Missionary Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception
Missionary Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception – Roman Generalate
Little Sisters of the Assumption
Holy Name Federation of the Poor Clares
Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart
Sisters of Saint Francis of the Neumann Communities
An Association of Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart (aka Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart), Frankfort, Illinois
Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (PBVM), New Windsor, New York
The Little Company of Mary Sisters – USA
Benedictine Sisters of Pontifical Jurisdiction of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Dominican Sisters of Hope, Ossining, New York
Society of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, Watertown, New York
Sisters of Providence, Holyoke, Massachusetts
Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (PBVM), Staten Island, New York

In Fiscal Year 2024, the staff members of the Catholic Religious Archive:

acquired 294 total linear feet of collection materials,
and completed content surveys and accessions for 1,448.5 linear feet of collection materials.

History of the Catholic Religious Archive

The Catholic Religious Archives resulted from “Envisioning the Future of Catholic Religious Archives,” a conference sponsored by and held at Boston College in July 2018. It was designed to bring leaders of religious communities, archivists, and historians together to seek and identify solutions to the issues that communities, including those coming to completion, face in preserving and providing access to their archival legacies. The paper “Preserving the Past, Building for the Future” (booked version) was produced following the conference. Speaker videos, original conference text, and blog posts are still available. (Learn more at the archives’ website.)