A preliminary survey of Ecclesiastical Archives within the Archdiocese of Malta

Abstract

The nature and mission of the Church to be a “sign and instrument of communion with God and of the unity of the human race”, while at the same time forming an integral part of society are necessarily reflected within Ecclesiastical Archives, that preserve an eloquent witness of its being and action. In them is testified the specific mission of the Church to build the Kingdom of God, as well as its commitment of building, together with all men of good will, a society more respectful of man and his values. It is in this sense, that Paul VI recalled that through the Church “it is Christ himself who operates in time and it is he who writes its history, so that our pieces of paper echo and trace this passage of the Lord Jesus in the world”. Therefore, this dual significance of ecclesiastical archives, for the Church and for society, renders the documentation conserved in them of primary importance for the religious and civil history of our people. The Church in Malta is responsible for the archival patrimony of all ecclesiastical institutions. Fully conscious of this immense patrimony produced over centuries by these institutions, it is also conscious of its duty to safeguard this material and make it available to scholars for their study. With this objective in mind, the proposed study seeks to serve as a preliminary survey of this patrimony. It is deemed necessary to first attempt an enumeration of all the different archives that can be incorporated under the term ‘ecclesiastical’, within the Maltese diocese, with the exclusion of those pertaining to religious communities; that is, limiting oneself to those archives that strictly fall under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop.