El Congreso de Directores de Congregaciones Marianas (Chamartín de la Rosa, julio de 1940)

The Marian Congregations were associations led by the Society of Jesus, which, both in terms of their number and social influence, were highly relevant in Spain in the 1940s and 1950s. It can be considered that the beginning of their journey after the Civil War took place at the Directors’ Congress, organized by the National Secretariat and held in July 1940 at the College of Our Lady of Recuerdo (Chamartín). The importance of the issues discussed in that meeting was of great significance in the rise that the congregations experienced in the following years. In order to understand this fundamental event, its context, preparation, and development have been studied through unpublished sources primarily consulted at the Archive of Spain of the Society of Jesus in Alcalá de Henares and the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu.