Pontifical Croatian College of St. Jerome

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The Pontifical Croatian College of St. Jerome, locally known as the Pontificio Instituto San Girolamo degli Illirici, is a Roman Catholic college, church and a society in the city of Rome intended for the schooling of Croatian clerics. It is named after Saint Jerome. Since the founding of the modern college in 1901, it has schooled 311 clerics from all bishoprics of Croatia.

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[edit] History

In an apostolic letter Piis fidelium votis, dated March 21, 1453, Pope Nicholas V granted the ruinous church of St. Marina and its yard to a brotherhood of Slavic priests Venerabilis societas confallonorum sclavorum Burghi S. Petri. At this location, next to the mausoleum of Emperor Augustus on the left bank of Tiber, they built a refuge and a hospital, and re-dedicated the institutions to Saint Jerome.

The brotherhood was renamed Congregatio (congregation) in 1544, and Pope Paul III sanctioned its bylaws and awarded it a Cardinal as a sponsor. Pope Pius V raised the Church of St. Jerome to the Cardinal status on February 8, 1566. On November 20, 1570, Felice Cardinal Peretti of Montalto became its sponsor cardinal, and remained in this position until March 24, 1585 when he was made Pope Sixtus V.

Pope Sixtus V rebuilt the church of Saint Jerome (finished in 1589), to be used specifically for the people who spoke Illyrian language, referring to the Croats from the eastern Adriatic, Dalmatia and Boka Kotorska. He also established the Capitol, a college of eleven Slavonic clerics at the Church, in his papal bull Sapientiam Sanctorum of August 1, 1589. He named Aleksandar Komulović (1548-1608) from Split the first arch-priest. Between the Capitol's establishment and its abolishment in 1901, over 120 Croatian priests worked in it.

In 1598, Pope Clement VIII gave permission for the hospice by the church to be transformed into a clerical college, but this did not actually happen until two centuries later, when on February 27, 1790 Pope Pius VI opened a seminary for people who previously used the services of the St. Jerome Capitol. But even then, the seminary functioned only for brief periods without interruption: 1793-1798, 1863-1871, and finally 1884-1901 after which point the Capitol was abolished.

The College was officially founded on August 1, 1901 by Pope Leo XIII. His apostolic letter Slavorum gentem called it Collegium Hieronymianum pro Croatica Gente ("Hieronymian College for the Croatian people"), but after diplomatic intervention from the Kingdom of Montenegro, on March 7, 1902 it was renamed to Collegium Hieronymianum Illyricorum (Illyrian Hieronymian College, San Girolamo degli Illirici in Italian).

Some Croatian priests received scholarships from the society in 1907, and in 1911 several students enrolled at the college, but this was again interrupted in 1915 due to First World War. The College reopened after the war, as Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes signed the Treaty of Rome, 1924 and acknowledged the clerical institution under the breve Slavorum gentem. A rebuilding of the College's facilities ensued in the period between May 28, 1938 and December 10, 1939, when six existing buildings were torn down to make way for new ones. The College has functioned without interruption ever since.

By decree of Pope Paul VI dated July 22, 1971, the College was renamed Pontificium Collegium Chroaticum Sancti Hieronymi (Pontifical Croatian College of St. Jerome), and this was accepted by Italy by decree of the President on October 11, 1982.

[edit] Role in the ratlines

Immediately after the Second World War the college was used to hide fugitives belonging to the Croatian fascist Ustashe movement, who were then smuggled out of Italy via a network largely controlled by priests belonging to the college. A leading role was played by the then secretary of the brotherhood, Father Krunoslav Draganović.

According to a 1998 US State Department report: U.S. and British intelligence reports agree that the College of San Girolamo degli Illirici in Rome served as a place of refuge and support for the Croatian refugees. San Girolamo, which is located outside the walls of the Vatican and pays Italian State taxes, provided living quarters for Croatian priests studying at the Vatican. After the War, it was the reported center of an extensive and effective underground that assisted Ustasha fugitives, including Ante Pavelić, to flee from Europe to South America.

[edit] References

  • Mark Aarons and John Loftus, Unholy Trinity: The Vatican, The Nazis, and the Swiss Bankers, St Martins Press 1991 (revised 1998)

[edit] External links

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