The correspondence, memories, and war diaries written by the Sisters enable to understand how the congregation spent the war years and to write this History.
Sister Mary-Louise M., American, knew the history of the Congregation. She had spent time consulting the general archives in Rome where she was Assistant General since 1969, and then to write her thesis, a biography of Father Terme. In January 1981, she gave a lecture-workshop in Chicago for US Tertiaries entitled "The History of the Cenacle from 1885 to the Present". In particular, she spoke about World War II with anecdotes from her life and anecdotes she had been told. The transcript of Sr Betty P. is faithful to the informal style of the workshop.
The "family letters" were sent by the General Government to each house. Those of September and October 1944 depict the Liberation of France through the stories of the Sisters.