Pontificio Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide

The Pontificio Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide was established in 1627 for the purpose of training missionaries to spread Catholicism across the world (the Latin term "de propaganda fide" means “for the propagation of the faith”).

The college was established in Rome by Pope Urban VIII. In a brief on January 27, 1624 he ordered the investment of money and the acquisition of the palazzo Ferratini in the Piazza di Spagna; by the Bull “Immortalis Dei Filius” on 1st August 1627, the college was established.

One of the greatest benefactors of the new college was Urban VIII’s brother, Cardinal Antonio Barberini. In September 1633 he bought all the houses and gardens between the College building and the Church of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte. On May 5, 1634 he laid the foundation stone of the college church.

Italians were not admitted to the college, except from areas of missionary work - Valtellina and the diocese of Como. From the outset, students were drawn from the Balkans, Northern Europe and the Middle East. The college prepared them for taking holy orders, after which they were to return to their homelands as missionaries. Between 1633 and 1703 a total of 451 students attended the college. Of these, 48 were Armenian, 42 Dutch, 34 Dalmatian, 33 Greek, 25 Syrian, 25 Valtellinese, 22 German, 17 Indian, 10 Ethiopian, 8 Persian and one from New Spain. In the first half of the nineteenth century the College had as its spiritual director Saint Vincent Pallotti and among its students, at different times, were Saint Oliver Plunkett and John Henry Newman.

On 27 June 1641 a further Bull of Urban VIII abolished the college’s autonomous administration and brought it directly under the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.

The effectiveness of the training was difficult to judge. In 1660 it became a requirement for all missionaries within Europe to send an annual letter back to the college - for those outside Europe, every other year sufficed. From these letters it can be ascertained that of the 51 seminarists between 1633 and 16&3, 27 had become missionaries, while the remaining 24 had died, abandoned their mission or simply disappeared.

...
Wikipedia