Missioners on the Margins? The Territorial Headquarters of the Welsh Jesuit College of St Francis Xavier at The Cwm, c.1600–1679

Abstract

This paper will discuss the history of the College of St Francis Xavier, the Welsh territorial district of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, and the history of Jesuit association with its headquarters, the Cwm farms at Llanrothal, near Hereford. One of 12 territorial divisions created by the Society of Jesus upon the creation of the English Province by 1623, the College of St Francis Xavier and its extensive surviving library, now housed at Hereford Cathedral, is being analysed as part of a three-year project funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council [AHRC]. The article argues for a re-evaluation of the Welsh District and its importance to the successes of the English Jesuit Province, concluding that, far from being a small, local missionary outpost of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, the College of St Francis Xavier, or the Welsh District, was in fact a diverse, vibrant and crucially important lynchpin in the successes of the Jesuits in England and Wales.