The Library
The Library at the Monastery of Our Lady of Victory
In 2005, the priest launched an appeal through Vatican Radio to ask the entire world to donate Catholic books in any language to support the pastoral work and to offer interesting books and reference material to the parishioners, migrant workers from different countries and tourists . Many books in different languages have arrived since and especially many copies of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Bibles and the Gospels, which are given without charge to those who ask and show interest. As the priest says, many people come to the Sancta Maria monastery (seamen, immigrants, tourists) to ask about faith, or looking for friendship and words of comfort.
The Library is organized by language, for example Greek, Italian, English, German, Spanish, French and Latin. One of the most valuable series is “Annales Minorum. Seu trium ordinum. A S. Francisco institutorum” from 1933. The annals are a collection of letters, documents and anecdotes related to Franciscan life from 1208 to 1627. Thanks to some volunteers living in Rhodes, the library and the archive of the monastery have been well organized and catalogued.
The library of the monastery also has an ancient and precious books section, with books dating back to 1500. The series of Chronicles of the Franciscan friars from 1600 to the present day is particularly interesting and the library is completed by old newspaper articles and photos.
The library of the Vicarage of St. Francis’ Church
The new library of the Church of St. Francis is open to the public every Sunday inside the Monastery. Lately, thanks to some volunteers, many books have been organized and catalogued, many donated by friends and supporters from all over the world.
The library is organized by language: there are at least 9 languages, including Greek, Italian, English, Spanish, French, German, Albanian, Maltese and Latin. The books are all about theology and philosophy. The library also holds a collection of ancient Latin texts from the end of the XIX century and the beginning of the XX century.
One of the most interesting donations was sent from Rome by Father Policarpo ofm. It includes a series of 14 volumes of the Bompiani editions of the History of Philosophy, a series of 25 volumes of Universal History published by Il Corriere della Sera and a series of 8 volumes of the Unedi edition of World Political History.
This library too has been organized and is managed by volunteers who have done a very professional job and give constantly of their time.
