The archiepiscopal seminary of Milan is the Catholic seminary of the Archdiocese of Milan. It has three seats: in Venegono Inferiore (Varese province), Seveso ( Monza e Brianza Province) and in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

. The latter also hosts the Istituto sacerdotale Maria Immacolata, that trains priests during the first five years following ordination, and the Istituto Superiore di Scienze Religiose; other diocesan activities have taken place there. In the other two sites seminarist theology training is conducted: in Seveso I and II theology with the corso propedeutico, in Venegono from III to VI theology.

History

The first

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...

dates to the times of

Charles Borromeo Charles Borromeo (; ; 2 October 1538 – 3 November 1584) was an Catholic Church in Italy, Italian Catholic prelate who served as Archdiocese of Milan, Archbishop of Milan from 1564 to 1584. He was made a Cardinal (Catholicism), cardinal in 156 ...

, opening in 1564. Under the bishopric of

Federico Borromeo Federico Borromeo (; 18 August 1564 – 21 September 1631) was an Italian cardinal (Catholicism), cardinal, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milan, Archbishop of Milan, and prominent figure of the Counter-Reformation in Italy. His acts of charity, ...

the Seminary of Porta Orientale took final form. St. Charles built several locations in the diocese. From 1638 to 1784 three operated in Milan (the Seminary of Porta Orientale, the Seminary of Canonica, the Collegio Elvetico), along with four minor seminaries in Monza, Arona, Celana and Pollegio. First reform school and then the presence of Napoleon's troops radically transformed the seminary: the diocesan seminaries Celana, Collegio Elvetico, Seminary of Canonica and later Arona closed; a structure in Castello above Lecco opened instead. In 1839 that seat transferred to the Dominican convent of St. Peter Martyr in Seveso. With this step the configuration seminary route became simplified: ''ginnasio'' in Seveso, ''liceo'' in Monza and theology in Milan. In the second part of the nineteenth century a seminary for poor students opened in Monza, entrusted to Barnabite Luigi Villoresi: training became more flexible and open according to inspiration from Antonio Rosmini. The resulting clergy were visibly different from the traditional way: this led to tensions. In 1900 a seminary opened near the Duomo that took the name Seminarietto, aimed at training those who were intended for liturgical service in the cathedral. Following the apostolic visitation of abbot Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster, then Archbishop of Milan, the site of Venegono Inferiore was built with the intention to move the center of the seminary there. Construction began in 1928 and the facility was solemnly inaugurated in 1935. In the following decades, when the ''liceo classico'' and the last three years of theology were placed in Venegono, several locations were used: Seveso (''medie-ginnasio''), Masnago (''elementari-medie''),

Arcore ARCore, also known as Google Play Services for AR, is a software development kit developed by Google that allows for augmented reality (AR) applications to be built. ARCore has been integrated into a multitude of devices. Key technologies ARC ...

(''medie''), Merate (''medie''), Seminarietto del Duomo (''ginnasio-liceo''),

Saronno Saronno (; ) is a ''comune'' of Lombardy, Italy, in the province of Varese. It received the honorary title of city with a presidential decree in 1960. With an estimated population of inhabitants, it is the most densely populated among the big m ...

(biennium theological and ''comunità propedeutica''), Milano (adult vocations). In 1966 Cardinal Giovanni Colombo decided to transfer the theological faculty (built by

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII (; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2March 181020July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the Ap ...

in 1892) from Venegono Inferiore to Milan, thus forming the Facoltà Teologica dell'Italia Settentrionale. The vocational crisis in subsequent years forced a reorganization of the community and led to the closure of many facilities. In 1985 the site was closed in Seveso: the ''ginnasio'' was transferred to Venegono and after a few years began restructuring. When construction ended in 1998 the community since then living in Saronno was transferred in Seveso. With the gradual extinction of the minor Seminary (closed in 2002 after several attempts for renewal and revitalization), the ''comunità propedeutica'' was added to the biennium seminary in Seveso. The restoration of the permanent ''diaconate'' wanted by Cardinal

Carlo Maria Martini Carlo Maria Martini (15 February 1927 – 31 August 2012) was an Italian Jesuit and Biblical scholar. He served as Archbishop of Milan from 1980 to 2002 and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1983. Martini entered the Society of Jesus in ...

in 1986 found a place in the headquarters of the Seminary.

Seminarists, professors and educators

Popes: *

Pius XI Pope Pius XI (; born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, ; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939) was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 until his death in February 1939. He was also the first sovereign of the Vatican City State u ...

Bishops and cardinals *

Giacomo Biffi Giacomo Biffi (13 June 1928 – 11 July 2015) was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was Archbishop Emeritus of Bologna, having served as archbishop there from 1984 to 2003. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 1985. Biogra ...

* Franco Giulio Brambilla * Gabriele Giordano Caccia * Adriano Caprioli * Bernardo Citterio * Francesco Coccopalmerio *

Diego Coletti Diego Coletti (born 25 September 1941) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who was rector of the Pontifical Lombard Seminary from 1989 to 2000, Bishop of Livorno from 2001 to 2006, and Bishop of Como from 2007 to 2016. Biography Diego Co ...

* Carlo Colombo * Giovanni Colombo * Renato Corti * Mario Delpini * Erminio De Scalzi * Marco Ferrari * Gervasio Gestori * Giovanni Giudici *

Alessandro Maggiolini Alessandro Maggiolini (15 July 1931 – 11 November 2008) was the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Como, Italy. Life Born in Bareggio, Italy, Maggiolini was ordained a Roman Catholic priest for the Roman Catholic Archdioc ...

* Angelo Mascheroni *

Attilio Nicora Attilio Nicora (16 March 1937 – 22 April 2017) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who held senior positions in the administration of the Roman Curia as president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See from 2002 t ...

* Giulio Oggioni * Gianfranco Ravasi * Carlo Roberto Maria Redaelli * Giovanni Saldarini * Luigi Stucchi * Dionigi Tettamanzi Theologians *

Giuseppe Colombo Giuseppe "Bepi" Colombo (2 October 1920 in Padua – 20 February 1984 in Padua) was an Italians, Italian scientist, mathematician and engineer at the University of Padua, Italy. Mercury Colombo studied the planet Mercury (planet), Mercury, and ...

* Franco Manzi * Giovanni Moioli *

Pierangelo Sequeri Pierangelo Sequeri (born 26 December 1944) is an Italian theologian of the Catholic Church who has been dean of the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences since August 2016. He is also a writer, and a comp ...

* Luigi Serenthà * Sergio Ubbiali

Sources

* ''Il Seminario di Venegono 1935-1985. Pagine d'un cammino'', a cura di Cesare Pasini - Mario Spezzibottiani, NED, Milano 1985. * Mario Panizza, «Seminario Maggiore», in ''Dizionario della Chiesa ambrosiana'', NED, Milano 1992, vol. V, 3310-3323. * ''La formazione del presbitero diocesano. Linee educative del Seminario di Milano'', Centro Ambrosiano, Milano 1995. * Dionigi Tettamanzi, ''San Carlo e il seminario. La formazione dei futuri presbiteri in un mondo che cambia'', Centro Ambrosiano, Milano 2006.

External links

Seminario Arcivescovile di Milano website

Permanent diaconate of Diocese of Milan

Istituto Superiore di Scienze Religiose of Milan
{{authority control Seminaries and theological colleges in Italy