New Advent

Front cover of the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 1.

New Advent is a Catholic website. It provides free online copies of important books, letters, and papers about the Catholic Church.[1]

History

A Catholic layman named Kevin Knight started New Advent. In 1993, Pope John Paul II visited Denver, Colorado, for World Youth Day. Knight was 26 years old at the time.[2] The Pope's visit inspired him to start a big project. He wanted to put the original 1907–1912 Catholic Encyclopedia on the Internet.

Knight created the non-profit website New Advent for this work.[1] Volunteers from the United States, Canada, France, and Brazil helped him type the original text. The website opened in 1995. The volunteers finished typing the whole encyclopedia in 1997.[2]

Contents

The website has many historical documents that are in the public domain (free to use and share). These include:

The website also shares current news about the Catholic Church.[1][3] The pages use many links so readers can easily click from one article to another.[1]

Reception and Impact

Brian K. Kooy, a librarian from Georgia State University, reviewed the website. He highly recommended it.[1] He said the text is simple to read and matches the original books perfectly. However, he also wrote that the website does not have many pictures and uses too many links.[1]

Other media sources also praise the website. Catholic Answers Magazine called it a "Catholic Supersite" because it makes old religious texts easy to find online.[4] Major news outlets like the National Catholic Register use the website's library to check historical facts.[5]

The website remains very popular. It receives more than 1 million visits every month from people doing research.[6]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kooy, Brian K. (25 September 2007). "The Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent)". Reference Reviews. 21 (7): 14–16. doi:10.1108/09504120710821550 – via Emerald Insights.
  2. 1 2 "Interview with Kevin Knight – On New Advent and Digitizing Catholic Tradition". Brandon Vogt. 9 July 2012. Retrieved 2026-05-26.
  3. ↑ "New Advent". UC Santa Barbara Library. Archived from the original on 2014-12-28. Retrieved 2014-12-28.
  4. ↑ "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Web?". Catholic Answers Magazine. Retrieved 2026-05-26.
  5. ↑ "The Courageous Witness of St. Catherine of Alexandria". National Catholic Register. Retrieved 2026-05-26.
  6. ↑ "newadvent.org Website Traffic, Ranking, Analytics". Semrush. Retrieved 2026-05-26.
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