Update on The Vincentians. A General History of the Congregation of the Mission.

bcicirel Vincentian History

This work, the first general history of the Congregation, was begun by Luigi Mezzadri, C.M., and the late José María Román, C.M. They published the first volume in 1992, and it was soon translated from Italian into Spanish, French, and Polish. The English volume appeared in 2009. In all, six volumes will appear in English.

Volume 2 was published, in part, in Italian by Luigi Mezzadri, C.M., and Francesca Onnis, Rome, 2000. The work is currently out of print. It will be republished in Italian with additional chapters (on Poland, Spain, and Portugal) once the English edition has been published. The author of volumes 3 through 6 is John Rybolt.

Each volume will have two major parts: the general government of the Congregation (focused on the superiors general, the general assemblies, legislation, and relations with Church and State), and chapters on individual provinces. As much as possible, each volume is based on original documents or contemporary publications. Maps and a few illustrations accompany each volume. Supplemental information will be available on line, courtesy of DePaul University’s Via Sapientiae website http://via.library.depaul.edu/histories.

Volume 1 deals with the foundation of the Congregation in 1625 through the generalate of Edme Jolly in 1697.
Volume 2: the history of the Congregation up to the French Revolution, 1789.
Volume 3: the Revolution through the generalate of Jean-Baptiste Nozo, 1843.
Volume 4: the generalates of Jean-Baptiste Etienne and Eugene Boré, 1878.
Volume 5: the generalates of Antoine Fiat and Emile Villette, 1919.
Volume 6: the generalates from 1919 through 1984.

Status:
Volume 2 is currently being edited for English publication in 2011. Volumes 3 and 4 have been written and are awaiting editing. Volume 5 has been begun, with several chapters already written.

Volume 1 in English is available commercially. (Publisher: New City Press, Hude Park, NY; ISBN: 978-1-56548-321-7. Work is currently underway to translate the subsequent volumes into the principal languages of the Congregation.