The Portal to Jesuit Studies

Timothy Kesicki, S.J., the president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States believes that, “the promotion of deep and serious study of the Society’s history, spirituality, and pedagogy will magnify its future mission. The Portal to Jesuit Studies will help to promote this important work.”

The Portal collaborates with publishers, institutions, and scholars to provide informed direction to some of the richest primary sources and most important recent scholarship on the Society of Jesus. Content of various websites are all available through the Portal’s single aggregate search engine. At no cost, visitors to the Portal can use its search function to explore several resources, all at the same time.

“As a teacher in a Jesuit high school, a crucial aspect of my role is to provide my students with both historical information on the Society and an understanding of Ignatian spirituality,” observes Georgetown Preparatory’s Bradley Boyle, an alumnus of the Institute’s Certificate in Jesuit Studies program. “The Portal places a wealth of information right at my fingertips. Whether I am looking for a primary text for class or seeking to enrich my own understanding of the latest in scholarly research, the Portal will be an invaluable tool in my work.”

As part of the searchable content, the Portal hosts a growing collection of the Essential Documents, texts critical to Jesuit history. The inaugural upload includes letters by various Fathers General (including several from the generalate of Ignatius of Loyola), statements about the Society of Jesus by various popes, and materials from recent General Congregations. Each document can be downloaded for research and classroom use. The collection will consist of documents donated by publishers and scholars.

The Portal’s search capability also includes the full content from the Institute’s new Jesuit Online Library, a multilingual database of 14 titles—totaling nearly 100,000 pages in 700 volumes. Users can search the entire library simultaneously, modify results by several categories, or browse selected volumes. The library contains entire runs of Jesuit journals (such as Woodstock Letters and Jesuit Educational Quarterly) as well as regional histories (of Spain, North America, France, and South America) and other texts.

The Portal collaborates with other institutions to provide a single, free way to search multiple sources at once, institution such as the Boston College Libraries, the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, Jesuit Sources, the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus, the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, and the Seminar on Jesuit Spirituality.

Digital Indipetae Database

The Digital Indipetae Database collects the indipetae of both the Old and the New Society. Users can search the letters by a number of facets — the full text, a sender’s name or location, the date a letter was sent, the destination desired, and the names of saints quoted among the others. The database also hosts scans of the original letters that are housed at the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu and other Jesuit archives.

Jesuit Online Library

The Jesuit Online Library allows users to search 39 Jesuit titles—more than 150,000 pages in more than 1,000 volumes—simultaneously or to browse single volumes individually. The collection includes books and journals in English, French, German, Spanish, Latin, and Portuguese. Searches can be refined by title, date, publication, or author.  Titles include: Woodstock Letters, Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits, Astrain’s history of Jesuits in Spain, Fouqueray’s history of Jesuits in France, Pastells’s history of Jesuits in Paraguay, Campbell’s history of the Society, and biographies of Canisius and Favre. Through the Portal, all contents of the library are searchable.

Essential Documents
The Portal hosts a growing collection of some of the most important primary sources in Jesuit history. Materials include letters and addresses from the Fathers General, selected decrees and important addresses from the General Congregations, and papal bulls, remarks, and other statements to or about the Society of Jesus. Through the Portal, all contents of the documents are searchable.

International Symposia of Jesuit Studies
The symposia series is held on an annual basis, and selected presentations appear in volumes available in Open Access each year. Soon all contents of published presentations will be available through the Portal’s search engine.

Jesuit Historiography Online
The Jesuit Historiography Online is an Open Access resource that will consist of more than 70 essays on a variety of topics and in a variety of disciplines associated with the history of the Society of Jesus. Essays will be updated and new essays added on a regular basis. Through the Portal, all contents of the essays are searchable.

Jesuit Sources
Jesuit Sources publishes more than 100 volumes to promote its mission to preserve, maintain, and expand for scholars around the world important texts and studies in Jesuit history, spirituality, and pedagogy. Through the Portal, the titles, authors, and abstracts of the available volumes are searchable.

Journal of Jesuit Studies
The Journal of Jesuit Studies is a peer-reviewed quarterly journal dedicated to the study of Jesuit history, publishing scholarly articles, interviews, and book reviews. Its contents are available in Open Access. Through the Portal, all contents of the journal are searchable.

Jesuit Online Bibliography
The Jesuit Online Bibliography is a database of bibliographical records for scholarship (books, chapters, articles, reviews, dissertations, and others materials) in the field of Jesuit Studies. Editorial oversight of bibliography is a collaborative effort between Jesuit research centers and archives as well as scholars and publishers. Through the Portal, the titles, authors, and excerpts from the bibliographic entries are searchable.

Jesuitica Directory
The directory allows for the searching of the titles, authors, and subjects of the more than 1,000 volumes of Boston College Libraries’ Jesuitica collection now available online. Through the Portal, the titles, authors, and series information for the volumes are searchable.

Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI)
ARSI is located on the grounds of the Jesuit General Curia in Rome. It oversees the archives of the central government for the Society of Jesus. ARSI also has a publishing division, Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu (IHSI). Founded in 1930, the IHSI has several book series and a biennial, peer-reviewed journal, the Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu. The Institute collaborates with ARSI to provide free access to the Jesuit Online Bibliography.

Boston College Libraries
Consisting of eight separate libraries, the Boston College Libraries seek to go beyond helping users find relevant information to integrate information resources into all aspects of teaching, learning, and research, with a particular focus to promote freely accessible online resources. The Institute collaborates closely with the Libraries both in developing the Portal and in providing free online access to the Libraries’ collection of Jesuitica. The Institute also collaborates with the Libraries to provide free access to the Jesuit Online Bibliography and the Jesuit Online Library.

Brill Publishers
Brill Publishers has been one of the world’s leading publishing houses in the humanities for more than three centuries. The Institute collaborates closely with Brill to provide free online access to the Jesuit Historiography Online, the Journal of Jesuit Studies, and selected presentations at the International Symposia on Jesuit Studies.

Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States
The Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States acts as the liaison between the provinces of North America, various national associations, and the Society’s international headquarters in Rome. The Institute collaborates with the Jesuit Conference to secure permission to provide free online access to the Jesuit Educational Quarterly.

Jesuit Sources
Jesuit Sources, founded in 1961, specializes in preserving, maintaining, and expanding for scholars around the world important texts and studies in Jesuit history, spirituality, and pedagogy. It publishes Jesuit primary sources in English translation, monographs on the Jesuits, and auxiliary literature in Jesuit Studies. It currently features more than 150 volumes.

The Jesuitica Project at KU Leuven
The Jesuitica Project is a collaborative initiative from the University of Leuven (KU Leuven, Belgium) and the Jesuit Region of European Low Countries, the former provinces of the Netherlands and North Belgium (Flanders). Its main goal is to stimulate research into the history and spirituality of the Jesuits by making the rich collections of Jesuit books in the Maurits Sabbe Library accessible and by hosting www.jesuitica.be, a website that offers a virtual portal with digital tools for the research community. The Institute collaborates with the Jesuitica Project to provide free access to the Jesuit Online Bibliography.

Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus
The Maryland Province has roots dating back to 1634, with the arrival of the first Jesuit missionaries in Maryland, and oversees current works in nine states. The Institute collaborates with the Maryland Province to provide free online access to Woodstock Letters.

(The former) Oregon Province/Jesuits West
In 2017, the Oregon Province was reunited with the California Province (the two split as distinct provinces in 1932), Jesuits West. The Institute collaborated with the Oregon Province to provide free online access to scholarship by the province’s late historian, Joseph F. Conwell, S.J.

Province d’Europe Occidentale Francophone
The Superior General of the Society of Jesus established the Province d’Europe Occidentale Francophone in 2017, combining the Jesuits in French-speaking Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Greece and Mauritius. The Institute collaborates with Europe’s Francophone province to provide free online access to Lettres de Jersey.

Província Portuguesa
The Jesuits’ province in Portugal was the first established by Ignatius, founded in 1546. The Institute collaborates with Província Portuguesa to provide free online access to História da Companhia de Jesus na Assistência de Portugal, the province’s seven-volume history written by Francisco Rodrigues.

Seminar on Jesuit Spirituality
The Seminar on Jesuit Spirituality was founded in 1969 by George Ganss, S.J., for the education and edification of Jesuits and continues to publish scholarly essays on issues such as the vows in the Society of Jesus, historical events and figures, and spiritual doctrine of the Jesuits. The Institute collaborates with the Seminar to provide free online access to the Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits.