Catholic Religious Communities Archive

The Catholic Religious Communities Archive (CRCA) is an initiative of the John M. Kelly Library’s Special Collections: Archives and Rare Books dedicated to the preservation, stewardship, and responsible management of the records of Catholic religious communities in Canada. Established to support the long-term care of archival collections of enduring value, the CRCA brings together the records of religious institutes and related organizations whose histories have shaped Catholic life and contributed significantly to the educational, social, cultural, and spiritual development of communities in Canada and beyond.

Through the CRCA, the Kelly Library works in partnership with religious communities to ensure that these records are preserved within a professional archival environment and made available, where appropriate, for research, teaching, and learning. In doing so, the CRCA supports not only the safeguarding of documentary heritage, but also its continued use and interpretation. By preserving and providing access to these materials, the CRCA helps sustain a deeper understanding of the lives, works, and legacies of Catholic religious communities and of their continuing significance in Canadian history.

Founding Donations

The CRCA builds on transformative founding donations from the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society, the Sisters of Service, the Loretto Sisters (IBVM), the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Sault Ste. Marie, and the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada. Together, these collections span more than 1,200 linear metres and represent a rich and multifaceted documentary heritage.

Recognizing Catholic Contributions

The CRCA preserves rare and unique primary sources documenting the vital contributions of Catholic religious communities in education, health care, social services, international mission, and social justice. Open to all, the CRCA supports academic study, personal inquiry, and public understanding through reading room access, course-integrated instruction, exhibitions, lectures, and outreach activities that engage students, faculty, donor communities, and independent researchers alike.

Stewardship and Scholarship

As one of few initiatives of its kind in North America, the CRCA reflects St. Michael’s commitment to stewardship, scholarship, and service. Its development helps ensure that these significant collections remain in Toronto, preserved within a vibrant academic setting where they can continue to inform research, teaching, and community engagement for generations to come.

The mandate of the Catholic Religious Communities Archive is to preserve and steward the archival records of Catholic religious communities in Canada and to support their long-term care, responsible management, and appropriate use.

In support of this mandate, the CRCA seeks to:

  • Preserve records of enduring value created and accumulated by Catholic religious communities
  • Provide professional archival stewardship, including appraisal, arrangement, description, preservation, and access
  • Support appropriate research use in accordance with donor agreements, privacy obligations, and access restrictions
  • Contribute to teaching, learning, and scholarship through the responsible use of archival materials
  • Help sustain understanding of the historical and ongoing contributions of Catholic religious communities in Canada

Holdings within the Catholic Religious Communities Archive

Scarboro Missions, formally the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society, is a society of Canadian Roman Catholic priests dedicated to mission work in Canada and abroad. The Society was founded in Almonte, Ontario, in 1918 by Monsignor John Mary Fraser as the China Mission College, established to train and send priests to China. After moving to Scarborough, Ontario, in 1921, it became the St. Francis Xavier China Mission Seminary. With Vatican approval of the Society’s constitutions in 1940, it became the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society.

Political and military upheaval in China, including the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Second World War, and the Communist Revolution, led Scarboro Missions to establish ministries elsewhere, beginning in the Dominican Republic in 1943. Over time, the Society expanded its mission work across Asia, Africa, and Central and South America.

The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) had a profound effect on the Society’s work. Alongside traditional missionary activity, Scarboro Missions became increasingly engaged in social and economic justice, ecumenism, and interfaith dialogue, especially in the Toronto area. Beginning in 1974, the Society also welcomed lay missionaries, including both single people and married couples.

In November 2017, the Society announced that, owing to aging and declining membership, it would no longer accept new candidates to the priesthood or lay missionary program.

Learn more about the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society fonds on Discover Archives.

The Scarboro Foreign Mission Society also maintains a website.

The SFMS records arrived at the Kelly Library in July 2023.

The Sisters of Service are a Roman Catholic religious institute founded in Toronto on August 15, 1922, to serve newcomers to Canada and bring the Church to rural and underserved communities.

Distinct from many women’s religious communities of the period, the Sisters of Service wore simple grey dress and hats rather than traditional habits, and lived in small community houses rather than large convents. This flexible model supported their work as a domestic missionary community and enabled them to adapt more readily to the needs of the communities they served. Their motto, I Have Come to Serve, reflected a charism expressed in many forms of ministry across Canada.

In Western Canada, the Sisters worked as teachers, nurses, and social workers. In larger cities, they operated residences for working women, especially newly arrived immigrant women. They also maintained a presence at Pier 21 in Halifax, assisting newcomers as they transitioned from the port to communities across the country. Their ministry also included catechetical instruction through correspondence schools and summer vacation schools.

In 2012, after deciding to accept no new applicants to the novitiate, the Sisters entered into a sponsorship agreement with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto, who assumed responsibility for their administration.

Learn more about the Sisters of Service fonds on Discover Archives.

The Sisters of Service also maintain a website.

The SOS records arrived at the Kelly Library in May 2024.

The Congregation of Jesus traces its origins to Mary Ward, an Englishwoman who founded a new community of women religious in 1609. Ward envisioned an independent, self-governing congregation modelled on the Society of Jesus, free from the confines of the cloister and able to respond to the urgent needs of the time.

The Institute was suppressed in 1631 by Pope Urban VIII in the bull Pastoralis Romani Pontificis. Mary Ward was imprisoned for several months in a Poor Clare convent in Munich by order of the Inquisition. She was eventually released and permitted to open a school in Rome, though without approval to form a religious community.

Following Ward’s death in 1645, her companions continued their work in England and continental Europe. This eventually led to the formal creation of the Congregatio Jesu, sometimes known as the “Roman Branch,” and papal recognition of the community.

In 1821, Teresa Ball established the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, sometimes known as the “Irish Branch,” in Dublin. Ball had been educated at the English foundation of Mary Ward’s community in York. Because the York foundation was isolated from the rest of the Institute in Europe and in a precarious position of its own, it was unable to assume responsibility for the new community. The Irish Branch therefore became an independent entity. The early pioneers in Dublin adopted the name Loretto, and IBVM communities founded from Ireland became known by that name.

On September 16, 1847, five Loretto sisters from Ireland, including Teresa Dease, the Canadian foundress, landed at Cooper’s Wharf in Toronto at the request of Bishop Michael Power. They began by educating the children of Irish immigrants in Canada and later expanded their work into the United States. Distance from the motherhouse in Ireland made administration difficult, and the sisters applied for independent status. This was granted in 1881, forming the “North American Branch.”

Over time, the Loretto sisters expanded their ministry. Their work included outreach to the poor, ministry to prisoners, retreat work and spiritual direction, refugee support, parish ministry, education by correspondence, collaboration with local bishops in religious education, and other forms of service as needs arose. This work reflected Mary Ward’s stated intention that members of the Institute promote “the greater glory of God” through the education of girls and by other means suited to the times.

In 2003, the Irish and North American branches reunited. Canada and the United States became two provinces within a larger branch that also included Australia, Eastern Africa, England, India, Ireland, South Africa, Spain, and the Region of Peru.

Although the IBVM developed separately from the Congregatio Jesu, the two communities maintained informal contact and shared a common origin in Mary Ward’s vision. In 2025, the Congregatio Jesu and the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary merged, fulfilling Ward’s hope for a united congregation of active apostolic religious women, under one leader and with the same constitutions as the Society of Jesus.

The CRCA stewards the records of the Canadian Province of the IBVM/CJ.

The IBVM/CJ of Canada maintain a website.

The Loretto records arrived at the Kelly Library in May 2026.

Contact Us

Telephone: +1 (416) 926-2314

Email: specialcollections.kellylibrary@utoronto.ca

Elizabeth Comper Special Collections Reading Room

John M. Kelly Library

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Before visiting, you are warmly encouraged to review our Researcher Guidelines. Rare materials damage easily but if well-treated, they can last many generations and, in some cases, hundreds of years.