About Ignispedia
Why and how Ignispedia was made
Ignispedia is, to our knowledge, the largest multilingual Catholic encyclopedia in the world: nearly 70 million words across its ten languages, the equivalent of nearly 11 Bibles in French alone. Here is how the idea was born, how it was written, and why you can trust it.
How it all began
A problem with access to information
Today, to look something up, we first go through Wikipedia. And when we ask an artificial intelligence a question, it relies largely on Wikipedia: according to a May 2026 study, it is even the site ChatGPT cites most. Yet on questions of faith, we find there a view that is often relativist, progressive, even atheist, presented as neutral knowledge: faith is constantly reduced to doubts and objections. Even Catholic pages are often poorly done, because a handful of accounts decides what stays: on a dozen pages devoted to mystics and apparitions, three accounts made nearly two thirds of the edits since 2023. That is why our motto is a word of the prophet Hosea: “My people perish for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). It is time to do something about it.
The starting point: Luisa Piccarreta
On French Wikipedia, the page on Luisa Piccarreta, Italian mystic of the Divine Will, still says that her beatification process “was halted.” Yet Rome authorized the resumption of her cause in June 2024, and the Vatican wrote that it found “no doctrinal error in her writings such as to prevent their disclosure.” This page does not reflect the current state of her cause, and attempts to correct it are reverted within minutes. So we wrote a first article, to present Luisa Piccarreta fairly. Then a second, to answer a frequent objection: the Reign of the Divine Will would be millenarianism.
From two articles to an encyclopedia
These two articles called for others: each subject led to saints, to texts of the Church, to pages of history. Little by little, the desire was born for a complete Catholic encyclopedia, where all the articles are linked together: another entry point than Wikipedia for everything touching on faith.
How it is made
With the help of several artificial intelligences
Let us say it clearly: Ignispedia was written with the help of artificial intelligence, and even of several. Since May 2026, they have been working on it day and night: searching, writing, proofreading, translating, checking. They have already completed more than twenty thousand tasks. That is what makes it possible to offer an encyclopedia of this size, in ten languages.
Rare documentation, found nowhere else
But an AI creates nothing from nothing: it works with what we entrust to it. We entrusted it with a large library, patiently gathered: our own research, history books, biographies of saints, Church documents, spiritual writings, and quotations found nowhere else on the Internet. This rare documentation is what gives Ignispedia all its value.
Proofread and verified, source by source
One AI writes, others check each of its sentences in the sources. What is kept enters the article with its reference, which you find in a note. And we always distinguish what the Church teaches from what a saint or a mystic received: each statement is given for what it is.
Objections, and our answers
“Written with AI, so worthless?”
This is the most serious objection, and it deserves a real answer. Yes, an artificial intelligence can make mistakes, invent a quotation or repeat what is read everywhere. We know that. That is precisely why Ignispedia was not made by simply asking a machine to write. The value of a text does not lie in the tool that shaped it, but in what it was given and in the checking that follows: rare sources, checked sentences, quotations traced back to their reference. AI helped; the quality comes from the sources, the method and the verification.
“A Catholic encyclopedia, so biased?”
Ignispedia is a Catholic encyclopedia, and it fully accepts that. But being Catholic does not excuse inaccuracy: facts are sourced, objections are presented with their answers, and each statement is given for what it is. Everyone can open the references and judge for themselves.
“What if it is wrong?”
That can happen, and that is why your feedback matters. You can read the references, check, and report an error by selecting the passage concerned. We then check in the sources, and we correct if needed. Ignispedia grows and improves every day: every message is read.