"Archivers and historians are guardians of our memory and identity," said Fr Michał Sołomieniuk, president of the Board of the Association of Church Archivists. On Jasna Góra there is simply a two-day 54th National Conference of spiritual Historians. This year's gathering is held under the motto "What the spiritual Archives Hide".
The conference is organized by the Historical Commission of the Conference of Higher Superiors of the Women's Order Assembly in Poland, the Centre for investigation on the Historical Geography of the Church in Poland KUL and the Association of Church Archives. Fr. Bishop Adrian Put, delegate of the Polish Episcopal Conference on the Association of Church Archivists, presided and homily during the meeting.
Sister Jadwiga Kupczewska, president of the Historical Commission at the Conference of Higher Superiors of the Women's Convents in Poland and organizer of the conference, stressed the request to show the past of spiritual orders in Poland. She explained that the spiritual archives, frequently dispersed in many places, including state archives, contain, among others, the records of the blessed and saints and papers describing the works undertaken by the assemblies.
As she pointed out, long-term inter-conventional cooperation allows to learn about the spirituality and achievements of various communities. She besides pointed out the importance of cooperation with church and state archivists.
"Archives are the kind of vault where we can discover different spaces," said Kupczewska. She explained that thanks to the documents, it is possible to show not only saints from spiritual orders, but besides the sacrifice and suffering of nuns and monks, including the forced work of sisters in labour camps in post-war years.
The conference organiser stressed that although the spiritual archives are private property, the assemblies are not afraid of transparency and invitation people from outside their own background to research. "We want to show through this conference that we are open to researchers that these archives are transparent. We besides want to collide with state papers and objectively show and compose the past of orders on Polish lands" - she said.
Fr Michał Sołomieniuk besides spoke about the importance of the work of archivists. "Architrists and historians are guardians of our memory and identity," he stressed. He explained that working with spiritual archival resources requires, among others, cognition of German, Russian and Latin, as well as the ability to read old manuscripts.
As he pointed out, specified cognition enables us to see “how God walked through this earth” and to discover how “the past of salvation has been going on for centuries.” He besides pointed out the request for cooperation between the different investigation communities, which allows for common usage of competences and deepening the cognition provided to subsequent generations.
APW, KAI
