Maronite College
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The Pontifical Maronite College (Italian: ''Pontificio Collegio dei Maroniti'') is one of the
Roman Colleges The Roman Colleges, also referred to as the Pontifical Colleges in Rome, are seminary institutions established and maintained in Rome for the education of future ecclesiastics of the Catholic Church. Many of the colleges have traditionally taken s ...
of the Catholic Church. Founded originally in 1584 in order to educate
Maronite Maronites (; ) are a Syriac Christianity, Syriac Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant (particularly Lebanon) whose members belong to the Maronite Church. The largest concentration has traditionally re ...
priests, the college provides now higher education to priests from also other Eastern denominations and serves as the pastoral mission for the adjacent church of St Maron and the Procuracy of the Patriarchate of Antioch of the Maronites to the
Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...
.


History


Background

When the Crusaders arrived in the Near East, they were welcomed mostly warmly by the Maronites and attempts to renew or create a union between the Catholic and Maronite church followed. The papacy might have accepted the Maronites into union around 1181/82 and the Maronite Patriarch Jeremiah al-ʿAmshiti visited Rome in 1213, receiving from the pope the
pallium The pallium (derived from the Roman ''pallium'' or ''palla'', a woolen cloak; : pallia) is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the pope, but for many centuries bestowed by the Holy See upon metropolitan bish ...
, sign of a formal Roman acceptance of his position as patriarch. After the Mamluk expulsion of the Crusaders in 1292 there are no signs for communication between the Catholic and Maronite church until the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438–1445), in which the Franciscans of Beirut played a pivotal role. In the 1540s, Maronite Patriarch Musa sought to integrate closer into the Catholic Church and therefore intended to train Maronites in Rome, so that they would be able to learn Latin, Italian and Latin theology and teach it to the wider Maronite community back in Lebanon. This might have been a catalyst for the foundation of the college. At the same time, the Catholic Church mounted after the
Council of Trent The Council of Trent (), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation at the time, it has been described as the "most ...
a world-wide missionary operation, aiming to defend its role as institutional center of the universal church against Protestants as well as Catholic monarchs aiming to increase their authority. Among the many newly founded missionary order, the
Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
sent a first mission to the Maronites in 1578–1579 in which they found the local clergy not fully educated in the main articles of faith and coherent with the Tridentine reforms. The Jesuits therefore proposed reforms including the education of Maronite clergy in the heart of the Catholic Church in Rome and the first students arrived in 1579 and 1581.


Foundation

The Maronite College of Rome was officially launched on 5 July 1584. Its primary aim was to educate Maronites in the sciences of the Catholic Church (such as
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
and Latin theology) and it was run by the Jesuits. The college was located in the Trevi district on a street called "Via dei Maroniti" in a former hospice dedicated for Maronite pilgrims which consisted of two dormitories, accommodating eight students each.
Pope Gregory XIII Pope Gregory XIII (, , born Ugo Boncompagni; 7 January 1502 – 10 April 1585) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 May 1572 to his death in April 1585. He is best known for commissioning and being the namesake ...
officially confirmed the college in his bull ''Humana sic ferunt'' on 28 July 1584. In this bull, he underlined the necessity of educating the Maronites, who were enduring the Turkish yoke, in the humanities. The other benefactor of the college was cardinal Antonio Carafa, who had been named protector of the Maronite nation in 1569 and proved a generous patron of the institution. The college was given the nearby church of San Giovanni della Ficozza (today not in use) for use. Today the former church building is the site of the restaurant "Sacro e Profano."
Nasser Gemayel Nasser Gemayel (born 6 January 1951, in Ain-Kharroubé, Lebanon) is the first and current eparch of the Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Notre-Dame du Liban de Paris. Life Gemayel was born in 1951 at Ain-Kharroubé in Antélias Archeparchy of the Mar ...
estimated that around 280 students passed through the institution between 1579 and 1788, though the number present at any time varied, with only nine students being present in 1644 and four in 1769. Several book by scholars of the Maronite College were printed at the Maronite press in the seventeenth century, the most important work being ''The Syriac Maronite Šḥīm, The Officium simplex septem dierum hebdomadae'', printed in 1624. Though there were at times also attempts to open Maronite colleges elsewhere, these were often unsuccessful or short lived, such as that open in 1667 in Ravenna. The alumni of the Maronite College led to an increasing reform movement in the Maronite Church which resulted in the
Lebanese Council of 1736 The Lebanese Council of 1736 (Arabic: ''al-Majma al-Lubnanī'', also Council of Mount Lebanon or Council of Luwayza) was a synod of the Maronite Church held from 30 September to 2 October that year at the monastery of Our Lady of Luwayza near Zou ...
, a major milestone in the history of the Maronite Church. After the dissolution of the Jesuits in 1773, the Maronite College begun to decline as neither the Catholic Church was able to find an alternative to the Jesuits to administer and fund the college nor could the Maronite Patriarch save the school from closing. In 1797, a school modelled on the Maronite College was created in Ghosta in the Ayn Warqa convent, which, together with other schools founded in Syria by alumni of the Maronite college, made it progressively possible not to have to travel to Rome for training. The Maronite College in Rome was finally officially abolished in 1808 after twenty years of stagnation.


Refoundation

The present Pontifical Maronite College was built on new foundations 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 1891, who showed a particular interest in the Churches of the East. The college was closed again during the Second World War and reopened in 2001 in the Ludovisi, though many of its books had been shifted to the
Pontifical Oriental Institute The Pontifical Oriental Institute, also known as the Orientale, is a Catholic institution of higher education located in Rome and focusing on Eastern Christianity. The plan of creating a school of higher learning for Eastern Christianity had bee ...
. Today, the Maronite College serves as place for higher education for priests who have finished the first cycle of studies in philosophy and theology and takes in priests for various
Eastern Christian Churches Eastern Christianity comprises Christian traditions and church families that originally developed during classical and late antiquity in the Eastern Mediterranean region or locations further east, south or north. The term does not describe a ...
, including those not in communion with the Holy See. Additionally, the college serves also as the pastoral Mission for the adjacent church of St Maron and as the Procuracy of the Patriarchate of Antioch of the Maronites to the Holy See.


Famous Alumni

*
Sergius Gamerius Sergius Gamerius (or Sarkis al-Gamri; 1610 in Ehden, Lebanon – 1668 in Marseille, France) was an Arabist and Maronite bishop. Life After study (from 1625) and be ordained a priest in Rome, and after a visit to Nicolas Peiresc in 1635 in Aix-en- ...
(1610 – 1668), Arabist and Maronite bishop *
George Omaira George Omaira (born in 1570?, Ehden, Lebanon - died in 1644) was the 53rd Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronite Church (1634-1644). Life Georges Omaira was born in Ehden. He was sent to Rome in 1583 to study at the Pontifical Maronite College. He ...
(1570 – 1644), first Maronite Patriarch to be educated at the Maronite College *
Abraham Ecchellensis Ibrahim al-Haqilani (February 18, 1605July 15, 1664; Latinized as Abraham Ecchellensis) was a Maronite Catholic philosopher and linguist involved in the translation of the Bible into Arabic. He translated several Arabic works into Latin, the most ...
(1605 – 1664), Maronite philosopher and linguist *
Istifan al-Duwayhi Istifan al-Duwayhi or Estephan El Douaihy ( / ALA-LC: ''Isṭifānūs al-thānī Buṭrus al-Duwayhī''; ; ; ; 2 August 1630 – 3 May 1704) was the 57th Patriarch of the Maronite Church, serving from 1670 until his death. He was born in Ehden, L ...
(1630 – 1704), Maronite Patriarch and Historiographer * Josepho Aloysio Assemani (1710 – 1782), Maronite Catholic priest and orientalist *
Pietro Sfair Pietro Sfair (10 February 1888 - 18 May 1974 ) was a Lebanese Catholic prelate who was the Diocesan Bishop of the Maronite Catholic Church of Antioch in Rome, Italy, where he also served as Rector of the Maronite College. Pope John XXIII appoin ...
(1888-1974), Archbishop of the Maronite Catholic Church and Council Father at the
Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...
. Rector of the Collegio Maronita di Roma 1960 to 1974. *
Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi Bechara Boutros Al-Ra'i (or Raï; ; ; ) (born 25 February 1940) is the 77th Maronite Patriarch of Antioch, and head of the Maronite Church, a position he has held since 15 March 2011, succeeding Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir. Rahi was mad ...
, (1940), 77th Maronite Patriarch of Antioch, and head of the Maronite Church, a position he has held since 15 March 2011, succeeding Patriarch
Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir ('; ; ; 15 May 1920 – 12 May 2019) was the 76th Maronite Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch and the Whole Levant and head of the Maronite Church from 1986 to 2011. He was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1994. E ...
.


References


Bibliography

* * * *{{cite book , last1=Pizzorusso , first1=Giovanni , last2=Girard , first2=Aurélien , editor1-last=Chambers , editor1-first=L. , editor2-last=O’Connor , editor2-first=T , title=Collegial Communities in Exile. Education, migration and Catholicism in early modern Europe , date=2017 , publisher=Manchester Scholarship Online , url=https://www.academia.edu/35075281/A_Girard_and_G_Pizzorusso_The_Maronite_college_in_early_modern_Rome_Between_the_Ottoman_Empire_and_the_Republic_of_Letters_in_L_Chambers_and_T_O_Connor_eds_Collegial_Communities_in_Exile_Education_migration_and_Catholicism_in_early_modern_Europe_Manchester_2017 , chapter=The Maronite college in early modern Rome: Between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Letters


External links


Link to the Pontifical Maronite College
Roman Colleges Maronite Church 1584 establishments in Europe Educational institutions established in the 1580s