Record Holdings

Transcripts from the following institutions are located in the Archdiocesan Archives. 

• St. Edward Seminary and St. Thomas Seminary
• Assumption School, Bellingham
• Blessed Sacrament School, Seattle
• Immaculate Conception School, Seattle
• Sacred Heart, Seattle
• St. Anne, Seattle
• St. James Cathedral School, Seattle
• St. Mary School, Seattle
• St. Patrick School, Seattle
• St. Ann, Tacoma
• St. Mary Academy, Toledo

Transcript/Student Record Request Form

These records document nearly 150 years of activity of the Catholic Church in Western Washington.  The records are arranged according to several record groups originally established by Bishop Gerald Shaughnessy, including:

• Vatican
• United States Church Hierarchy
• Diocesan Offices
• Parishes
• Clergy
• Women and Men Religious
• Catholic Institutions
• Catholic Lay Organizations and Societies
• Apologetics

Record series include annual reports, clippings, correspondence, and memorabilia. Records were created and maintained primarily by individual bishops, chancery administration, and archdiocesan parishes, schools and institutions.

General Research Request Form

This collection contains a variety of objects used by clergy, the religious, and the laity of the Archdiocese.  These religious artifacts include:

• Vestments, chalices, altar linens, and home mass kits
• Art objects and gifts donated to the Archdiocese
• Corporate memorabilia such as seals and insignia

Fonds contains lectures, writings, and research materials created between 1947 and 2003 by Peter Chirico, S.S. in his roles as a Sulpician priest, seminary and university lecturer, and theologian for the Archdiocese of Seattle.

Contents of fonds touch upon a broad range of theological issues. Lecture materials offer introductory and intermediate level discussions of subjects basic to Catholic theology, while many of Chirico’s writings engage in more complex analyses of theological questions tied to contemporary issues, such as the ordination of women, homosexuality, and birth control.

Common questions seen throughout Father Chirico’s papers relate to the methods of developing, applying, and enforcing Church dogma and morality; the extent of Church powers in defining dogma and morality; and the relationships between obedience and faith and between obedience and dissent.

 Guide to the Peter Chirico, S.S. fonds

These collections provide a pictorial history of the Catholic Church in the Pacific Northwest from the 1860s to the 1990s. Most of the images were created and maintained by Chancery administration and Archdiocesan parishes and schools; others were among the belongings of past bishops or were donations to the Archives from other sources. Nearly half of the photographs in the Visual Resource collections were used in The Catholic Northwest Progress, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Seattle. The Visual Resources collections include images of:

• bishops and archbishops of the Archdiocese of Seattle
• diocesan and religious order priests
• parish and mission buildings throughout Western Washington
• women and men religious
• local Catholic institutions, such as hospitals, schools, colleges/universities, and convents
• lay Catholic organizations and associations
• events within the Archdiocese of Seattle

If you wish to make inquiries about these collections, please use the General Research Request Form.

Located in the Archdiocesan Archives are sacramental registers of pioneer priests (1848-1900), early sacramental registers of St. James Church, Vancouver, Washington (1838-1890), as well as other 19th and early 20th century sacramental registers of churches and institutions such as Cabrini Hospital and Briscoe Memorial School.  Sacramental records are private in nature (Canon 535) and general access is restricted.  However, access is unrestricted to those records created 75 years prior to January 1 of the current year.

To view policies regarding registers and to access the request form, see Sacramental Records