The apostolate of the Jesuits

What and how many ‘jobs’ does a Jesuit perform? Fathers and brothers carry out various apostolates throughout their religious lives. Today we will look at the sources that help us reconstruct the daily life of Jesuits and their numerous commitments.

Apostolate or assignment?

The apostolate is not limited to a single assignment, nor is it synonymous with it. Let us take an example. A Jesuit may be appointed by his Provincial as Superior of a residence or Rector of a college or church, but the duties of that role may be accompanied by other apostolates. Sometimes, in fact, even the Superior of the house entrusts tasks to the new member of the community, often it is the Jesuit who has previous apostolates that he can continue in his new destination. This is the case with guides to spiritual exercises, Jesuit writers or those linked to Marian Congregations.

The catalogue

The primary source that helps us verify which and how many assignments a Jesuit had during his lifetime is, once again, the annual historical catalogue.

It is a veritable mine of information that allows us to reconstruct the history of residences, Jesuits and even their apostolates. Thanks to the catalogue, it is possible to follow a Jesuit from the moment he enters the novitiate, throughout his religious life, and note which and how many assignments he takes on. Initially, novices spend most of their time in formation, but already during their years of philosophy, they find their first apostolates: catechism in some church, often close to the Scholasticate, or catechesis at home for domestic servants and coadjutor brothers. The catalogue is written in Latin and often the words indicating the apostolates are abbreviated. This can sometimes cause difficulties for our researchers. In this episode, we present a new page on our website dedicated entirely to the glossary of abbreviations used in the catalogues of the Society of Jesus. Fr Gramatowsky had already noticed this difficulty and, in 1992, published a work dedicated to the collection of some words and abbreviations taken from sources but relating to the papers of the Old Society. Now researchers can find also consult the abbreviations found in the catalogues of the New Company. For this work, we would like to thank Fr. Michele Lavra for reviewing the entries and translations, and Fr. Barretta for his advice on the assignments.

Numerous apostolates

The Jesuits have numerous apostolates. In compiling our glossary, we counted approximately 154 entries, not including variations of the same abbreviation. In addition to the appointments made by the Provincial, such as rector, superior, director of works, and province archivist, there are also those usually entrusted by the superior of the community. New members of the community were often called upon to take care of the house library, with the role of librarian, and many – even today – were in charge of confessions in the church. For this apostolate, in residences linked to large churches, more than two Jesuits were often needed, and many more on Sundays.

While the duties of the fathers ranged from teaching to spiritual assistance to students and former students of colleges and various types of works, those of the brothers were also manifold. By studying the apostolates of the coadjutor brothers, we can enter into the daily life of the communities and observe the division of tasks. In colleges, in particular, there were many brothers, so great was the workload in very different areas. The coadjutor brother is not only the cook or the one who takes care of the kitchen. In fact, in larger houses a brother in charge of preparing breakfast, one who looked after the cellar and was in charge of wine and oil, and one was in charge of stocking the pantry. The community barber was a brother. The image in today’s episode shows Brother Enrico Ciceri engaged in his duties as doorman in L’Aquila

We invite all our readers to visit the new page on our website to discover the many different tasks performed by Jesuits in the past. Some are linked to a way of life that has now disappeared: the miller, the confessor on board triremes, and the amanuensis. For the Greek and Sicilian Jesuits who lived in Tinos and Syros, islands in the Greek archipelago that were once part of the Sicilian Province, it was common to be assigned to preach on neighbouring islands. Missionaries were often engaged “inter paganos”, with populations who professed faiths other than Christianity.

The glossary is a source within a source that helps us to enter into the daily life of homes and colleges of the past.

Maria Macchi