DePaul University Library and DePaul’s Office of Mission and Values are proud to announce the digital publication of The Annals of the Congregation of the Mission: A Collection of Edifying Letters. Volumes may be viewed and downloaded for free athttp://via.library.depaul.edu/annals_en/.

The thirty-two volumes of The Annals (1894-1926) represent the English-language translation of those same years of Les Annales de la Congregation de la Mission, a French periodical published by the Congregation of the Misson via the Vincentian motherhouse in Paris. The letters, communiques, and updates included in each issue were meant to keep the community apprised of the activities of their confreres around the world.

Modeled by the Vincentians on Les Annales de la Propagation de la Foi (published by the Society of the Propagation of the Faith, a Catholic administrative body that oversees Church missionary activity), The Annals, while successful, proved to be too much translation work for the Vincentians (each volume running approximately 700 pages). Publication ended in 1926.

Available digitally for the first time in English, the information included in these thirty-two volumes is invaluable in understanding the Vincentian community and Catholic missionary work during the late-19th and early-20th centuries. The lives and deeds of countless Vincentian priests and Daughters of Charity are detailed. Moreover, the volumes contain eyewitness accounts of missionaries, chaplains, and battlefield nurses who experienced conflicts including the First Sino-Japanese War, the Philippine Revolution and Spanish-American War, the Boxer Rebellion, the Mexican Revolution, and most importantly World War I.
Volumes are in the process of being digitized and made available online by DePaul University Library, where the volumes reside as part of the Vincentian Studies Collection.

This project began in 2016, with the first eight volumes (one quarter of the print run) currently available. The next eight volumes will be available in early 2018, and so on. The digitization of all thirty-two volumes of The Annals is due to be completed in 2020.

For more information about this project, The Annals, DePaul’s Vincentian Studies Collection, or the Vincentian family, please contact DePaul’s Vincentian Librarian, Andrew Rea, at area1@depaul.edu.