Because Memory Matters and because Saints Matter!

Dear Friends of the Bollandists,

 
An unexpected call on 11 April 2025 will remain forever engraved in the minds of all of us on our little team: UNESCO has recognised the Acta Sanctorum and its archives as part of its “Memory of the World” index!

The vast undertaking launched by Heribert Rosweyde in 1607—and perfected by Jean Bolland with the first two volumes of the Acta Sanctorum printed in 1643—is considered the largest publishing and scientific project prior to the French Revolution: 67 folio volumes totalling 60,000 pages. It was a monumental effort that required years of preparation, including extensive correspondence with scholars and clerics across Europe, and the painstaking copying of texts found in medieval manuscripts scattered across both East and West. The 300 volumes preserving this correspondence and the manuscript copies are held jointly by the Bollandist Library and the Royal Library in Brussels, alongside nearly 700 copper plates in the care of the Bollandists. Many of them are still waiting to be explored and to shed new light on their times. By developing a unique method of researching and indexing every single saintly figure across fourteen centuries, the Bollandists have safeguarded not only their memory but also the historical fabric of past times—for the benefit of future generations and in service of preserving the memory of our world.
 
The Société des Bollandistes—with our specialised library, publications, and electronic databases—continues the tradition inaugurated by Rosweyde and Bolland. We are proud to receive this UNESCO honour, and we remain committed to serving academia, the Church, and society at large.
 
With your precious support, we will continue doing everything in our power to ensure that this extraordinary Christian heritage is researched, preserved, promoted, and disseminated as widely as possible.
 
Wishing you a blessed Easter,

Irini de Saint Sernin