The Vincentian Studies Institute of the United States (VSI) is an American Catholic research outfit at DePaul Universityin Chicago, Illinois.
The Institute, founded in 1979, is sponsored by the ten provinces of the Congregation of the Mission (the Lazarists or Vincentians) and the Company of the Daughters of Charity in the United States.
The Institute's mission is to promote a living interest in the historical, spiritual and charitable heritage of the Vincentian family in following Jesus Christ, the Evangelizer of the Poor and the source and model of all charity, under the patronage of Saint Vincent de Paul, (1581–1660) and Saint Louise de Marillac, (1591–1660).
The organization periodically offers continuing education opportunities and symposia, and also collaborates with a variety of other programs intended to promote a greater understanding of the Vincentian history and tradition.
The origin of the Vincentian Studies Institute can be found in the Second Vatican Council's mandate that religious communities renew themselves in light of the "signs of the times."
A more remote origin of the Institute can be found in the work done by a variety of French Vincentian historians beginning in the mid-nineteenth century after the Congregation of the Mission's post-revolutionary restoration.
The fourteenth superior general, Jean-Baptiste Étienne (1801–1874), had a lively concern for the preservation of the "primitive spirit" of the Vincentians and Daughters of Charity.
Confreres such as Gabriel Perboyre, Jean-Baptiste Pémartin, Félix Contassot, Jean Parrang, Fernand Combaluzier, Pierre Coste, and André Dodin are representatives of this French school of Vincentian historiography.
The inspiration for this idea was the Jesuit Historical Institute in Rome and the Academy of American Franciscan History then located in Bethesda, Maryland.
The Provincial and Vice-Provincials of the western region of the United States initially accepted this proposal but, for reasons that are not entirely clear, nothing came of it at that time.
He requested that they undertake a new translation into modern American English of the correspondence, conferences and documents of Saint Vincent de Paul.
meeting held at Niagara University, New York, a number of representatives of the North American Provinces attended, including Reverends John Carven, C.M.
A preliminary proposal was drawn up and submitted to the Vincentian Conference (composed of the five United States Visitors) in October 1978.
The two organizational meetings were held at Kenrick Seminary in Saint Louis, Missouri (November 1978), and Mater Dei Provincial House, Evansville, Indiana (March 1979).
The following March the organization began its work with a meeting held at Saint John's Seminary College, Camarillo, California.
The Governing Body meets annually to review the work of the Institute, its performance, strategic plan, and to approve its budget.
At the same time the organization created a category of at-large membership to allow for members in addition to those appointed by the respective provincial superiors as representatives of the ten provinces.
In 1995, the headquarters of the Vincentian Studies Institute relocated to the John Richardson Library of DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois.
In 2001, the remaining Vincentian volumes from the seminary library collection at Saint Mary's of the Barrens in Perryville, Missouri, were transferred to the V.S.I.
There is also a Vincentiana Collection dedicated to material items that reflect Vincentian culture and experience over the centuries as experienced on a day-to-day basis.
Also in 2001, the Midwest Province of the Congregation of the Mission relocated its DeAndreis-Rosati Memorial Archives to the university as part of this Vincentian research center.
In collaboration with the Sisters of Charity Federation in the Vincentian-Setonian tradition the Vincentian Heritage has published two issues dedicated to papers delivered at national Seton symposia.
After several years concentrating on the journal's development, the Institute undertook a new phase of its research and publishing mission in 1987 by sponsoring the reprint of Joseph Leonard's English translation of Coste's three-volume biography of Saint Vincent.
These works have in subsequent years been followed by the publication of other translations, reprints, magazines and original research in Vincentian history and spirituality.
In 1996, the Institute published Sister Betty Ann McNeil, D.C.'s (USA Emmitsburg Province) monograph, The Vincentian Family Tree.
This event, which examined the French spiritual roots of the Vincentian tradition, took place at Saint Mary's of the Barrens in Perryville, Missouri.
After extensive consultation, the membership determined that a pressing issue in contemporary Vincentian experience was mission-based leadership development.
Recently, the Institute held a national symposium in Chicago for Vincentian archivists in conjunction with the celebration of its 25th anniversary in April 2004.
A number of confreres, sisters, and lay scholars took advantage of this grant opportunity to support their Vincentian research, writing and publication.
Two typical grants awarded in the recent past include: Sister Betty Ann McNeil's demographic study of the entrants into the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph in Emmitsburg, Maryland, from 1809 to 1850, and the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, United States Province (1850–1909); and Dr. Richard J. Janet of Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri, who is researching for a book tentatively titled: In Missouri's Wilds: A History of Saint Mary's of the Barrens Seminary and College 1818-2000.