General Archives

The General Archives was created with the mission of collecting, preserving, organizing, cataloging, and preserving all documentation of historical value pertaining to the Congregation, preserving its memory and projecting it into the future. It houses the writings of the founder, Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, as well as official documents of the General Government, its agencies, and the provinces, vice-provinces, regions, and members of the Congregation; as well as all documentation relating to the Congregation or any of its members produced by third parties. A rich collection of documents that chronicle the Congregation’s history over its nearly 300 years is preserved and protected for posterity.

The General Archive of the Congregation began to be organized during the time of our holy founder, who was already concerned with the preservation of important documents, paying the utmost attention to the respective archives of the local communities. Each community he founded was required to send to the archive everything important to tell the history of the community and its brothers. In this way, it is possible to find in the General Archive documentation relating to our saints, blesseds, and martyrs, as well as to the brothers and units of the Congregation.
A great achievement, from the beginning, was the birth and growth of an awareness of preserving its history, as a way to root and pave the way for the Congregation and for new/future generations of Redemptorists.
The chronicles of the house and other documents collected and preserved continue to provide not only a valuable source for understanding the nearly 300 years of our Religious Institute, but are also evidence of its vitality throughout the centuries.
The General Archive was founded in Pagani, in southern Italy, in the mid-19th century, and its first archivist was Father Giovanni Giuseppe Sabelli, who collected and organized all the documentation produced between 1747 and 1848.

Archivists, men who preserve and enrich our history.
In 1856, the General Archives were opened in Rome, next to the General House of the Congregation, under the direction of Fr. Eduardo Schwindenhamer. After the reunification of the Congregation in 1869, a large part of the Pagani archive was also transferred to Rome.
Fr. Schwindenhamer was later succeeded by other General Archivists:

1. Fr. Michael Ulrich in 1862;
2. Fr. Friedrich Kuntz in 1879;
3. Fr. Eduard Bürel in 1903;
4. Fr. Jean Baptiste Raus in 1924;
5. Fr. Louis Arnold in 1943;
6. Father Philip Hoffmann in 1946;
7. Father Maurice de Meulemeester in 1949;
8. Fr. Andreas Sampers in 1951;
9. Fr. Hernàn Arboleda Valencia in 1986, with Fr. Conrado Gagliardi (São Paulo) as assistant;
10. Fr. Raúl Campos in 2004;
11. Fr. Edward Nocuń in 2007;
12. Fr. Adam Owczarski in 2013.

Since 2023, Fr. Wagner Gonçalves de Souza Lima , from the Province of Brasília, has been in charge of the General Archives and the Historical Library of the Congregation. The Brazilian priest Gerônimo Ruschel, from the Province of Porto Alegre, also worked for about 10 years as a collaborator of the General Archives.
Other confreres also worked in the General Archives, and little by little, the documents kept were organized and classified for archiving. Over time, plans of the building and photographs were added.
Since 2013, the permanent members of the Institute and the General Archives have been Fr. Adam Owczarski (Poland), also director of the Institute and editor of the magazine Spicilegium Historicum CSSR; Fr. Emilio Lage , secretary of the Spicilegium Historicum CSSR (Madrid); Fr. Martin Macko (Prague-Bratislava); Fr. Roberto Antonio Etcheverry Vela (Buenos Aires); and Jean Beco (Belgium).
In 2025, upon the return of Father Adám to his home province, Father José Inácio Medeiros (Our Lady of Aparecida) took over as Director of the Historical Institute from him, and Father Wagner continues to collaborate with the General Archives and the Historical Library.

Qualified Personnel
Every day that passes, it becomes more urgent to raise the awareness of confreres and lay people about the importance of historical research, urging the Units of the Congregation to train qualified personnel. Since it is necessary to continue research on the origins, evolution, and activities of the Congregation, to continue the publication of the Spicilegium Historicum CSSR magazine and the Bibliotheca Historica CSSR, we try to use, in a more organized way, the Scala News website and Social Networks and Mass Media to reach generations living in the digital environment.
If qualified personnel is available, it will be possible to continue the publication of the History of the Congregation collection, of which two volumes have already been published, divided into four volumes.

Planning:

1. Continue the work of cataloging and archiving the documents of the old and new Units of the Congregation and of the confreres.
2. Update the Statutes of the Historical Institute and the General Archive.
   The most important thing is for the Historical Institute and its affiliated organizations to continue working toward their goals, promoting to the congregation not only the preservation of documents, but, above all, the importance of knowing that we are all “builders of history.”

Father José Inácio de Medeiros, CSsR
Redemptorist Historical Institute
Rome, April 2, 2025.

Contact:

Father Wagner Gonçalves de Souza, CSsR – General Archivist

E-mail:  archive-contact@cssr.com
Tel: +39 06 494901