Letters Providing Historical Record of American Jesuits Now Available Online

The Woodstock Letters, which provide an invaluable record of the work done by American Jesuits throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, have been digitized and are now available through the Saint Louis University Libraries Digital Collections.

A publication of the Society of Jesus from 1872 until 1969, the Woodstock Letters were named after Woodstock College, the Jesuit seminary in Maryland where they were published. These letters were written almost entirely by Jesuits and were originally intended to be read only by Jesuits. The letters served as “a record of current events and historical notes connected with the colleges and missions of the Society of Jesus in North and South America.”

The Woodstock Letters include historical articles, updates on work being done by the Jesuits, eyewitness accounts of historic events, book reviews, obituaries, enrollment statistics for Jesuit schools and other items of interest to the Society. Writings of many renowned Jesuit scholars and missionaries appeared in the Woodstock Letters, including Pedro Arrupe, Pierre-Jean De Smet, Avery Dulles, Daniel Lord, John Courtney Murray and Walter Ong.

The Jesuits in the United States circulated the Woodstock Letters, which number almost 50,000 pages, among their members and institutions in the 19th and 20th centuries. Saint Louis University Libraries has made them available through a partnership with the Midwest Jesuit Archives and the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus. View the collection here.