Church of the Sacred Heart (Boston, MA) Records (CMS 062)
July 25, 2016
CMS 062 documents activities at the Italian-American Roman Catholic parish of Sacred Heart in the North End of Boston from the foundation of the parish in 1889 until the 1970s. The impetus for gathering the congregation came from the community, organized into the San Marco Society, and so this collection provides a window into the roles of laity, prelates, and religious orders in the formation of new parishes. One step in founding the parish came when laity and the local ordinary agreed to staff the parish with clergy from the Missionaries of Saint Charles-Scalabrinians, an order founded in 1887 to minister to migrants; this collection thus also documents the Scalabrinians’ work. From its foundation Sacred Heart produced books of announcements to be read at Mass, correspondence, financial records, newspaper clippings and programs produced for parish events; the collection contains examples of each. In the 1960s, a new wave of immigrants established an American variation of Italy’s Catholic Action movement at Sacred Heart, generating documents into the 1970s.
Arrangement
Series I: Paris Announcement Books
Series II: Financial Records
Series III: Commemorative Journals
Series IV: Newspaper Clippings
Series V: Miscellaneous Documents
Series VI: Records of the Society of San Marco
Series VII: Records of the Azione Cattolica Italiana di Boston