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An historic journey of global interest
Saint-Joseph’s Oratory was almost half a century old when the decision was made to increase historical and doctrinal knowledge of the Patron Saint of the Sanctuary. In June 1949, a documentation centre was founded to gather everything that had been written on Saint Joseph since the beginning of Church history. The Centre officially opened in 1951 under the direction of Roland Gauthier, CSC, who was returning from Rome where ha had written a doctoral thesis on the Fatherhood of Saint Joseph. Every library of the world was asked to contribute to the task of finding works on the topic.
The following year, theologians and historians participating in the first ‘Study Day’ held on March 19th 1952, decided to add a research centre to the documentation center to stimulate the production of scholarly research as well as books ans articles for general consumption based on the assembled documents. In 1953, a scientific journal was created to publicizice the work done in what came to be known as the ‘Research and Documentation Centre’. Between 1953 and 1994, the Cahiers de Joséphologie published 86 issues.
The Centre has continued to pursue its mission of helping Saint Joseph and the Holy Family become ‘better known’ and ‘better loved’, and now boasts a specialized library, the Roland Gauthier Library, containing more than 20 000 documents in about forty-odd languages, along with a stamp collection, magazines and artefacts.
Over the years, the Centre has been at the origin of or collaborated in a number of initiatives honouring Saint Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church, such as: 1- nine international Symposiums of which the first was held in Rome in 1971 and the most recent in Germany in 2005, with publication of the Acts of those congresses; 2- Pope John XXIII's addition of Saint Joseph's name to the Canon of the Mass; etc. The Centre has also initiated or let its support to academic work on Saint Joseph, in fields ranging from pure theology to art history.
In 1994, after the retirement of its founder, the Centre's mission was re-examined and its research base expanded to include Brother André and the Oratory, as well as questions of spirituality related to the vocation of sanctuaries and sanctuary life: prayer, conversion, pilgrimage, suffering, healing, miracle, experience of the saints, popular devotion, etc. Through the Centre, the pastoral vocation of Saint Joseph’s Oratory was thus been expanded in terms of reflection and research. For further details on the history of the Centre, please see D. Robillard, « Les grands travaux et les œuvres » in Les merveilles de l’Oratoire, 1904-2004 (Fides, 2005, ch. XI, p. 325-330).
The Centre does not lend documents from the Roland Gauthier Library. These are available for consultation by appointment only. Centre publications are available for sale as long as supplies last.
Click here to see the catalogue ( PDF format )
Opening hours: 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. from Monday to Friday
Informations
Daniel Picot, Director
Telephone: 514 733-8211 extension 2331
Fax: 514 733-5269
E-mail: recherche@saint-joseph.org
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