"A vital place for the preservation of identity and an inspiration for the future, an icn of the new Province reality."

Fr Provincial Gianfranco Matarazzo inaugurated the Archives situated in via degli Astalli: "in the house where St. Ignatius of Loyola lived and is buried, where Fr Arrupe wanted to set up the first reception centre of the Jesuit Refugee Service and where meals are served every day and people fleeing from war and poverty are visited, next to the Gesù International College, the Curia and the government of the Province, a place has been born, an icon of the new Euro-Mediterranean reality" he underlined.  These important spaces which are professionally certified are very much treasured, and I hope they will be a vital place for the preservation of memory and identity, a support for current affaris and issues, and an inspiration for the future ".

850 metre-long documentary heritage.

Mons. Renzo Giuliano, parish priest of S. Marco, blessed the place.  He highlighted the value of the handing down of memory that unites, auguring that "the best of humanity is conveyed to history". This 850 metre-long documentary heritage includes registers, correspondence, files and a photographic collection. "The Archive gathers the documentation produced by the 5 old Provinces: Venetian-Milanese, Torinese, Roman, Neapolitan, Sicula and the former mission of Albania, today part of the Province, starting from the re-establishment of the Society in 1814", Dr. Maria Macchi, curator of the archive of the EUM Province  “The documents produced by the individual provinces, by the institutions dependent on them and by individual Jesuits are preserved in the Archive. The documents of these Institutions include those of Massimiliano Massimo of Rome, those of St. Frances Xavier College of Livorno and those of the Opera Massaruti ”. Through these documents one can make research on the Society of Jesus, on certain Jesuits and also on the cities where the Society operates, examining historical events through the life of the communities present also in numerous missions such as Brazil, India, China and Albania.

Requests and exhibitions.

During the first year of its opening 137 requests were made for access to the Archive, during the second year 200 requests were made and during the third year the requests made reached almost 400. "Three exhibitions were prepared for the occasion namely, the writings of Fr. Alagiagian, an Armenian Jesuit imprisoned in Russia until 1954, the sermons of Fr. Giuseppe Massaruti and the spiritual writings of Fr San Francesco De Geronimo, one of the oldest collections dating back to the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century. The diaries of the novitiate situated at Sant'Andrea al Quirinale in Rome until 1870 and today in Genoa were also exhibited. There are also diaries containing the memoirs of the novices, including those of Fr. Angelo Secchi, a document through which his biography could be written. One can also find an account of the First World War told by Jesuit chaplains ministering on the front or in Rome itself where many treated the wounded at the Massimo institute which was then a hospital.

The documents which were studied and filed, are kept in fascicles made of non-acid material for proper conservation and can be searched from the inventory which is being prepared.

Among the special documents are the report book and school documentation of Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, President of the Italian Republic, photographs of Ettore Majorana, his brothers and cousins who were all students at the Massimo Institute in Rome, the handkerchief of Pius X, a second class relic, and the Last Vows and the signatures of renowned Jesuits such as Fr. Angelo Secchi, Fr. Tacchi Venturi and Fr. Pietro Pirri:

The historical archive also has its own editorial column on-line where twice a month, articles are published on particularly interesting documents or current affairs: https://news.gesuiti.it/category/archivio-storico/