Greek College, Rome

The Pontifical Greek College of St. Athanasius (it.: Pontificio Collegio Greco di Sant’Atanasio, gr.: Ελληνικό Κολλέγιο Αγίου Αθανασίου) is a Pontifical College in Rome. It was founded in 1577 by Gregory XIII as a college and seminary for priests and seminarians from anywhere the Greek Rite is used, namely Greece, the Ruthenians and Melkites of Egypt and the Levant and refugees from the Greek-speaking parts of southern Italy. Its patron saint is Saint Athanasius. The college Church of Sant'Atanasio is also a titular church and the national church of the Greek community in Rome.

Its foundation dates back to cardinal Giulio Antonio Santorio. As protector of the Basilian monks he set up a reformed congregation for the Greeks in 1573, from which he developed the idea of a seminary for Greek seminarians, which opened in 1576 and was approved by Gregory XIII with a bull on 13th January the following year. The priests it trained were intended to oppose Turkish expansion into former Byzantine lands in Greece, prevent the Protestant Reformation spreading 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 now Via del Babuino. Its students came from Greece, the Italo-Albanian Greek Catholic Church in Italy and the Arab dioceses of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church as well as from Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Ukraine and Belarus.

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