Pontifical French Seminary

The facade of Santa Chiara - the church of the French seminary

The Pontifical French Seminary (Fr: Collège Français, It. Seminario Francese) is a Roman College dedicated to training French speaking Roman Catholic priests.

History

In 1853 the French bishops held the Council of La Rochelle, where they proposed a plan for a French Seminary in Rome to train priests strongly attached to the Holy See and able to counteract Gallican ideas. They successfully petitioned Pius IX to approve this idea. The seminary opened in 1853 with 12 students under the direction of Father Lamurien of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost, an order which for a long time was still in charge of the college. Its first site was the old Irish college near the Trajan's Forum.^[1]

In 1856 Pius IX assigned to the seminary the Church of Santa Chiara with the adjoining Poor Clare convent, founded in 1560 by St. Charles Borromeo on the ruins of the baths of Agrippa.

After the new Italian government evicted the College of Saint Thomas from the convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in 1873, the College was able to continue after the French seminary's Rector Tommaso Maria Zigliara offered refuge at the Pontifical French Seminary.^[2][3]

Santa Chiara was rebuilt on the plan of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires in Paris, in 1883 the monastery was entirely remodeled to suit its present purpose. Leo XIII declared it a pontifical seminary in 1902. As of the early 1900s there were between 100 and 120 seminarians.^[4]

Father Henri Le Floch was the rector in the early 20th century until the late 1920s.^[5] Le Floch's support of Action Française led to his removal at the request of the French government.^[6]

One of Le Floch's students was Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the founder of the traditionalist Roman Catholic Society of Saint Pius X, and he attributed his conservatism to the time he spent in the seminary.^[7] The first priests belonging to the Society of Saint Pius X were from the French Seminary who claimed that they were being persecuted by a radical administration and student body for their conservative beliefs.^[8]

College Life

Most of the studes where conducted at the Gregorian University. The students are made up both of seminarians and existing priests pursuing further study. The seminary is located in the Via del Seminario. Non-French students are also admitted.

Notable alumni

• Cardinal Louis-Nazaire Bégin, Archbishop of Quebec and Primate of Canada^[9]
• Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Founder of the Society of Saint Pius X^[10]
• Cardinal Joseph-Charles Lefèbvre, Archbishop of Bourges^[11]
• Cardinal Emmanuel Célestin Suhard, Archbishop of Paris^[12]
• Cardinal Léon-Etienne Duval, Archbishop of Algiers^[13]
• Cardinal Gabriel-Marie Garrone, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education^[14]
• Cardinal Alexis-Armand Charost, Archbishop of Rennes^[15]
• Archbishop Alain Paul Lebeaupin, Apostolic Nuncio to Kenya
• Paulin Martin, Biblical scholar^[16]
• Venerable Leon Dehon, founder of the Oblates of the Sacred Heart

References

1.  "Roman Colleges". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.
2. The Dominicans, Benedict M. Ashley, O. P., http://www.domcentral.org/study/ashley/dominicans/ashdom08.htm Accessed 4-26-2011
3. Catholic Encyclopedia, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15759a.htm Accessed 5-24-2011
4. Escheat, "Le séminaire français de Rome", Rome, 1903 quoted in  "Roman Colleges". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.
5. In a profoundly Catholic seminary of this sort Marcel Lefebvre received his preparation for the Holy Priesthood in the 1920s during the reign of Pope Pius XI — at the prestigious French seminary of Rome, then under the direction of the distinguished Father Henri Le Floch, of the Holy Ghost Fathers The Society of Pius X, Douglas Laudenschlager, The Angelus, February 1979
6. White, David Allen (2006). The Horn of the Unicorn. Arlington: Angelus Press. ISBN 978-1-892331-39-7.
7. Archbishop Lefebvre readily admitted that were it not for the solid formation he received from Fr. Le Floch, he too might have succumbed to the creeping liberalism of the age. I have handed on what I have received by John Vennari, published in The Angelus [August 2005]
8. The Wanderer Interviews Fr. Aulagnier, SSPX, Luc Gagnon, September 18, 2003
9. BEGIN, Louis-Nazaire, From Biographies of the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church by Salvador Miranda
10. In a profoundly Catholic seminary of this sort Marcel Lefebvre received his preparation for the Holy Priesthood in the 1920s during the reign of Pope Pius XI — at the prestigious French seminary of Rome, then under the direction of the distinguished Father Henri Le Floch, of the Holy Ghost FathersThe Society of Pius X, Douglas Laudenschlager, The Angelus, February 1979
11. LEFEBVRE, Joseph-Charles, from Biographies of the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church by Salvador Miranda
12. SUHARD, Emmanuel Célestin, from Biographies of the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church by Salvador Miranda
13. DUVAL, Léon-Etienne, from Biographies of the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church by Salvador Miranda
14. Garrone, Gabriel-Marie, from Biographies of the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church by Salvador Miranda
15. Charost, Alexis-Armand, from Biographies of the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church by Salvador Miranda
16.  "Paulin Martin". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Roman Colleges". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.

Coordinates: 41°53′52″N 12°28′38″E / 41.8977°N 12.4773°E