ANNALES DE L'ASSOCIATION DE LA PROPAGATION DE LA FOI. — The official organ of this Association, which later became the Pontifical Work Faith (v.). Begun in Lyon and Paris in 1824, as a continuation of the Association’s booklets published since 1822, from 1840 it appeared bimonthly, and subsequently the numbering of the volumes corresponded to the years. Although they presented themselves as a continuation of the celebrated Lettres édifiantes, the Annales are far more universal than that collection; in addition to the communications of the Association, they contain letters and documents originating from every missionary Order and mission country, thus constituting a source of primary importance for the history of Catholic apostolic activity in the last century in Europe and on the other continents. In 1931 the periodical changed its title to Annales de la Propagation de la Foi et de s. Pierre Apôtre, and began publishing information about this latter work as well. At present it has lost its original value.
The Annales achieved a wide circulation, with versions that were more or less complete and adapted in almost all European languages, printed in various countries. Contrary to the wishes of the central council of Lyon, not all the versions conformed exactly to the original French edition; the Munich version in particular added reports by German missionaries, informing readers, among other things, about the development of Catholic activity in the United States of America. The origin of some translations has not yet been established, for example that of the first German-language edition (perhaps the one from Einsiedeln, rather than that from Strasbourg). The Italian edition appeared from 1828 onward, in Lyon, in close dependence on the original French edition. Although in 1839 vol. IV of the reprint declared it the only authorized edition, condemning every other Italian-language version, extracts were published in Naples, which subsequently became more complete.