The Franciscan Central Archive (FCA) has shared an exciting update about its future home and ongoing mission to support Franciscan entities in preserving their archival collections. At the end of the announcement, you’ll find an invitation to join an informational webinar on November 5 at 3pm ET, open to congregations, colleges, ministries, and others interested in learning more.
The Franciscan Central Archive has decided on our future home! We have been invited to purchase land in Frankfort, Illinois, from the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart.
We recognize this decision is just the beginning and there is much work ahead. While we move forward with planning our archival facility and capital campaign, we remain committed to assisting Franciscan entities and our partners.
2026 will be the FCA’s year of planning. During this year, we will reach a point where we must move forward with building plans to provide the capacity for our partners. After this point, anyone who wishes to join FCA would likely have to wait until an expansion is possible. Because of this, we encourage interested parties to step forward now into meaningful conversation with our board.
As part of mission, we offer the following services and initiatives
- Guidance and resources concerning archives
- Assist Leadership with hiring or contracting archivists
- Needs assessment and strategic planning for members and FCA
- Assist members to prepare their archives for transfer
- Seek grants and donations to assist members and reduce costs
- Enable donor development and gift campaign to support efforts
- Initiate agreements for members
- Facilitate move of members’ archives to the FCA
- Promote and increase accessibility to FCA collections, bringing forth the shared Franciscan spirit
Our unique approach is in recognition of the value of processing and describing collections within their communities to document the provenance and intent, thus preserving integrity prior to moving the collections. This enables efficient access to collections.
The FCA currently has 10 partners whose archival collections will be held within the facility:
- Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity
- Holy Name Province, Stella Niagara, NY
- Sacred Heart Province, Denver, CO
- St. Francis Province, Redwood City, CA
- Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, NY
- Sisters of St. Francis of Rochester, NY
- Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Francis, WI
- Wheaton Franciscan Sisters, Wheaton, IL
- Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate, Joliet, IL
- Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, La Crosse, WI
- Franciscan Sisters of Chicago, Lemont, IL
In a spirit of advocacy, we are also in conversation with a couple of Franciscan universities as to how we may be of service.
November 5th at 3pm Eastern Time, the FCA will be holding a webinar for interested Franciscan entities (congregations, colleges, universities, secular, related ministries, etc.) that may need assistance with their archive and/or a future home for their archives. We will be sharing our vision, services, and plans, followed by discussion. Click here to register for the webinar.