The Chronicle of the Stigmatine American Province is the history of the 20th century in the United States from our perspective. This was a stormy period for the Catholic Church, due to ‘Americanism’, and its doctrinal rejection of Pope Leo XIIIth – and due to the ‘Italian Problem’, [cf. the classic, The Madonna on 115th Street], noted by sociologists regarding the influx of Italian immigrants to the USA. The Stigmatines came to the New World in 1905, and by the year 2000, the Community showed clear signs of petering out.  However, some important work was done – and some wonderful people passed through our open doors in these nearly 100 years.

By and large, the history of the Stigmatines in the United States is the history of numerous small Italian parishes and these stretched from Vancouver BC to Manassas and Woodbridge, VA – from Timmins and South Porcupine, Ontario in Canada, to a small shrine in the Ozarks out in Arkansas – from Salute Ste Marie in Canada, an Information Center and retreat house – to conducting the diocesan seminary in Guam. The community ran a summer camp, had a wide variety of houses of formation: Waltham primarily – Newton MA, Waterville NY to Wellesley MA, Springfield MA to White Plains NY, the Rectory there serving for less than a year as a Novitiate. The Province provided a flourishing retreat house for many years.

While there was not an unmitigated success, many good Stigmatines from the United States served as Apostolic Missionaries in China, Thailand,  Brazil – the Province provided good men for Hospital and Military chaplaincies.Presently a ‘small remnant’ continues the Stigmatine life in the USA under a special legislation, in the retirement house in Waltham MA – and two parishes, one where  the Province  began [Mount Carmel, Springfield MA] – and Sacred Heart in  Milford MA – and with a reduced Provincial Council membership, and a  very limited participation in the General Chapters of every six years..

This present Province Chronicle is planned for seven substantial ‘volumes’:

	General Introduction [with geographical locations] of the Chronicle of the Stigmatine North-American Chronicle
	Volume I: Historical Background and First Foundations
	Volume II: Our Lady of Mount Carmel Churches - Springfield, MA
	Volume II: Our Lady of Mount Carmel Churches:: Pittsfield, MA
	Volume II: Our Lady of Mount Carmel Churches - White Plains, NY
	Volume III: Sacred Heart Churches - Waltham, MA
	Volume III: Sacred Heart Churches - Milford, MA [in progress]
	Volume IV: Foreign Missions - The Retreat House - University and Seminary Professorships [in progress]
	Volume V: Formation: Waltham, Springfield, Wellesley and Newton, MA; Waterville, NY [in progress]
	Volume VI: Personalities [Short Biographies]

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