Arxiu Claret-Vic Presentation

 

          In the summer of 1982 Fr. Juan Sidera i Plana took over the old and somehow neglected Arxiu Pairal (Family Archive) of the Congregation; and in October 1985 the first of the 50 issues or notebooks that would become the Arxiu Claret – Vic collection was brought to light. In the presentation the author stated the objectives of the simple photocopied publication, which would have a monthly periodicity: “It is to make known documents, historical news, small studies, current news and comments: all related preferably with the figure and the work of Saint Anthony Ma. Claret … Our aims are to put into circulation the documents that still remain unpublished in the cabinets of our Archive and the new findings that we may do… Local issues, the times of missionary Mosen Anton Claret throughout Catalonia, will have preference, because of their proximity to the sources of information.

The publication, very modest in its presentation but of great quality in its content, extended until mid-1994, distributed in four volumes. Full of curiosities and critical annotations to data from the Claretian biography, the work that appeared modestly typed and stapled is nowadays a must-see for the preparation of theses and dissertations or any serious study on the popular missionary of Catalonia. The notebooks also offer, in smaller quantity, some articles on other times of Claret’s life and on the first steps of his Congregation of Missionaries.

In order to facilitate the use of this treasure of information, CESC offers three indexes of the whole of the work: one of thematic-topographic (each number with the articles or documents it contains), another of names of persons, and a third of names of places. The starting point of these indexes are those already offered by the author at the end of each volume; now they are unified and, in some cases, slightly reformulated.

The author of the various articles or notes is nearly always the same Fr. Juan Sidera; In the few cases in which the author is another, it is recorded in the topographical index.

P. Severiano Blanco Pacheco, CMF
Collaborator of the CESC