In 1767, the Society of Jesus was expelled from Peru and was absent from the country for over a century. It was not until 1871 that it was able to come back, thanks to the work of the then Bishop of Huanuco, Monsignor Manuel Teodoro del Valle, who invited the sons of Saint Ignatius to take over the city’s seminary. Spanish Father Francisco Javier Hernaez SJ, was appointed as superior of that first group of Jesuits who were able to return to Peruvian territory.

Hernaez took notes of the most relevant events surrounding the return of the Society of Jesus to Peru and placed them in a report addressed to Father General Peter Jan Beckx. The text, which covers the period from 1871 to 1875, emphasizes the difficulties that the Jesuits had to face to achieve their permanence in the country.

This edition of Father Hernaez’s Report includes the transcription of the original manuscript in Spanish; the Latin version of the first two sections of the text, made by the author himself; and an introductory study by Adolfo Dominguez SJ, which provides information about the writer, the work and its context of production.