Our Catholic Paper Treasures

Types of documents in the Collective Archive in Odorheiu Secuiesc

About the universal destination of the ecclesiastical archival heritage, the Papal Commission of Ecclesiastical Cultural Goods declares the following: "Because archives constitute cultural values, they primarily serve the benefit of the community that created it, but with the passage of time they acquire a universal destination, becoming the property of the whole mankind. The deposited material can not be inaccessible to those who can process it for the benefit of the history of Christian people and the knowledge of its religious, civil, cultural and social events." Aware of the appeal of the Roman circle, the leadership of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Alba Iulia, initiated the unified ordering and the uniform processing of the parochial written values were initiated.

The great territorial expansion of the Transylvanian Episcopate, today the Archdiocese of Alba Iulia, justified the establishment of several collective archives for archdeanery and parish archives. Unique in the Carpathian Basin, between 2003-2016, nine collective archives were set up in eight cities, most of them at archdeanery residences: Alba Iulia, Gherla, Sântu Gheorghe, Târgu Mureş, Gheorgheni, Odorheiu Secuiesc, Gherla (Armenian-catholic), Cluj and Miercurea Ciuc.

The Collective Archive of Odorheiu Secuiesc was founded in the summer of 2008 in the study house of the St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Parish (the Archdeanery Office) and consists of 42 archive funds: 1 archdeanery, 40 parishes and a branch, as well as a thematic collection - composed of construction plans.