Pontifical Greek College of Saint Athanasius

For the earlier Greek College founded byLeo XandJanus Lascaris,seeGreek College of the Quirinal.

ThePontifical Greek College of St. Athanasius(Italian:Pontificio Collegio Greco di Sant’Atanasio;Greek:Ποντιφίκιο Ελληνικό Κολλέγιο Αγίου Αθανασίου) is aPontifical CollegeinRomethat observes theByzantine rite.

It was founded in 1577 bypope Gregory XIIIas a college for the training of priests and seminarians who worshipped according to the GreekEastern Catholic liturgiesand disciplines. More recently, seminarians from elsewhere and other Byzantine RiteEastern Catholic Churcheshave attended:Melkite Greek Catholic Church,Greeks, Albanians, Romanians, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Belarusians, Slovaks; in past centuries, before the establishment of autonomous colleges, also Ukrainian andRuthenianstudents. It also hosted representatives of the Eastern Orthodox world.

Its patron saint isSaint Athanasius.The college Church ofSant'Atanasiois also atitular church.

History

Foundation

Its foundation dates back to cardinalGiulio Antonio Santorio.As protector of theBasilian monkshe set up a reformed congregation for the Italo-Albanian people of theByzantine Ritein 1573,from which he developed the idea of a seminary for seminarians of the eastern rite, which opened in 1576 and was approved by Gregory XIII with abullon 13 January the following year. The priests it trained were intended to opposeTurkishexpansion into formerByzantinelands in the Balkans, Greece and in the Christian east in general, prevent theProtestant Reformationspreading there and help bring the Eastern Churches back into communion with Rome.

Between 1576 and 1577 the College was hosted by several houses in Rome, until in 1577 it found a permanent home on what is nowVia del Babuino.Its students came from theItalo-Albanian Greek Catholic Churchin Italy, Greece, the Arab dioceses of theMelkite Greek Catholic Church,as well as fromRomania,Bulgaria,Hungary,UkraineandBelarus.

Later history

The college was managed by theRoman Curiaduring the peak of the Curia's reorganisation bypope Sixtus V.From 1591 to 1604 it was managed by theDominicans,then by theJesuitsand then from 1773 onwards by theCongregation for the Propagation of the Faith.From 1803 to 1845 no teaching took place at the College - instead, its students attended the College of the Propagation of the Faith (now thePontifical Urbaniana University). In 1886 the college reopened under the management of theResurrectionist Congregation,before shifting back to the Jesuits in 1890 and to theBenedictinesin 1897. In 1919 it was put under the charge of the Belgian Benedictine community, headed since 1956 byChevetogne Abbey. The current Pro Rector is the Rev. Fr. Thomas Bailey, OSB and the Rev. Fr. Gabriel Florian-Borzos is the Spiritual Director of the college.

Rite

For many years the seminarians of the college only used the Byzantine Rite as opposed to theLatin liturgical rites,leading to constant disagreements with seminarians who used the Latin liturgy. The dispute was resolved bypope Leo XIII,who referred topope Benedict XIV's 1755encyclical'Allatae Sunt', which repeated both rites' validity. He also pointed out that the college's church ofSant'Atanasiohad four Latin altars and so both rites could be practiced on an equal footing.

See also

• List of Jesuit sites

Works of art

The college's collection of religious art includes works byFrancesco Traballesi.

External links

• http://www.collegiogreco.com/
• http://www.liturgiabizantina.it/S_Atanasio/Collegio%20Greco.htm