The American Catholic Sermon collection was formed from sermons in the Woodstock College Archives, the Maryland Province Archives, and the Georgetown University Archives. It contains manuscript sermons by over 40 different preachers, all but two of which are Jesuits, including 54 texts by Archbishop John Carroll and seven by Georgetown's first president Fr. Robert Plunkett. The sermons are arranged alphabetically by preacher last name.
When possible, folder level descriptions of sermons include date and title; text on which the homily is based; the length of the manuscript; and notes on when and where it was preached.
The American Catholic Sermon Collection is on deposit at Georgetown University and are the property of the USA East Province of the Society of Jesus. As stewards of the Archives, the Georgetown University Library’s Booth Family Center for Special Collections is responsible for managing access to the material based on policies set forth by the USA East Province. Researchers may view these materials in the Reading Room of the Booth Family Center for Special Collections. General policies for using Special Collections can be found here.
Access to the Archives is governed by the USA East Province and is subject to all Library and Special Collections policies and procedures in addition to the specific guidelines below. These guidelines are a summary of access policies; the Archives may include materials that fall outside the scope of these general guidelines. For information on access to specific materials, please contact the Special Collections staff.
Guidelines:
1. All Archives materials dated or bearing solely on events occurring before January 1, 1940, shall be open for review unless otherwise restricted, subject to Library policies and procedures.
2. All unpublished Archives materials dated or bearing solely on events occurring on or after January 1, 1940, shall be open for review upon request subject to a decision by the Provincial or someone designated by the Provincial.
3. Researchers may quote from the materials.
4. Researchers may take their own photographs of the material for scholarly and research purposes. Allowing photographs is not an authorization to publish or to deposit the material in another library or archive.
5. Written permission from the USA East Province is required for the publication of substantive portions of any material or publication-quality reproductions of any material.
6. Material not yet processed is not available to researchers; permission will not be granted to access any unprocessed material.
7. Audiovisual, microfilm and other material in the Archives, the original of which is held in another archive, may be consulted and transcribed only. Written permission from the archive holding the original material is required for any duplication, reproduction, or publication of that material.
8. Use the Permission Request Form to request permission (i) to access any restricted processed material or (ii) to publish reproductions or quote substantive portions of the material. Send the completed form by email to the Booth Family Center for Special Collections (speccoll@georgetown.edu).
Researchers are solely responsible for determining the copyright status of the materials being used, establishing who the copyright owner is, locating the copyright owner, and obtaining permission for intended use.
1.6 Cubic Feet (4 boxes)
English
French
Latin
Individual folder-level descriptions indicate where each sermon was pulled from, whether the Maryland Province Archives, the Georgetown University Archives, or the Woodstock College Archives. This artificial collection was created by archivists in 1984.
This collection was rehoused into acid-free boxes and folders in May 2024. The materials have been maintained in the same order as the original processed collection, but folders have been consolidated (e.g., the three sermons of Fr. Peter Attwood are now in a single folder rather than three). Further, when sermons do not have a known date, the period that the priest was preaching in and around Maryland has been used.
Part of the Georgetown University Manuscripts Repository