A brief history…
The Pontifical Scots College in Rome was founded on 5 December 1600 by Pope Clement VIII. In its initial years, the College provided an education for young Scottish Catholic men who, due to the laws against Catholics, could not receive a Catholic education at home.
Inspired by St John Ogilvie, the sixteen students studying at the College vowed on 10 March 1616, one year to the day after his martyrdom, to return to Scotland as priests; thus the College became a seminary.
During the centuries that followed, the College sent a steady supply of priests to Scotland. For two hundred years Jesuits and Italian secular clergy directed the College, however, since 1800 the Rectors have all been from within the ranks of the secular clergy in Scotland.
Location
At first the College was situated in a little house on what is known today as Via del Tritone, opposite the church of Santa Maria in Costantinopoli.
In 1604 it was transferred to Via Felice, now called Via delle Quattro Fontane, and there it remained until 1962. During its time on the site opposite Palazzo Barberini, the College had several configurations. The first united various houses into one combined building behind the facade that remains today. In the early part of the 20th century, the College was extended with a wing looking on to Via Rasella.
A national church for Scotland was built in 1642. The Church of St Andrew of the Scots (Sant’Andrea degli Scozzesi) was built beside the College. Although the church still stands, it has since been deconsecrated.
The College transfered to the Via Cassia in 1964. It remained there until the building was closed in 2023. Since then, the College has been temporarily residing at the Pontifical Beda College while a new building is found.
Visitors
Pope Clement XI and King James III (‘the Old Pretender’) visited the old building in 1717. The students were supporters of the Stuarts and the Jacobite Movement.
Blessed Paul VI opened the new building in 1964, and Pope Saint John Paul II visited the College two years after his 1982 Apostolic Visit to Scotland.
As well as a house for seminarians, formators and religious sisters, the Scots College has been a temporary home for many other Scots over the past decades, including Bishops who attended the Second Vatican Council and other significant events.
Many Scottish pilgrims came to the College when it was at the centre of celebrations for the creation of three Scottish Cardinals, and again for the Canonisation of Saint John Ogilvie.
Priests taking part in postgraduate theology courses continue to reside at the College.
Monsignor Charles Burns OBE
Monsignor Charles Burns OBE arrived in Rome in the late 1950’s, and lived at the College on the Via delle Quattro Fontane. Little did he know that he would spend his whole priestly life in Rome, which made him witness to many extraordinary events in the city, such as the Second Vatican Council, making him a living history of the College and the city.
Monsignor Burns began compiling his memoirs from his student days in the College for the Scots College magazine a few years ago. Some of the events of those years have now been brought together with the addition of some photographs from the Scots College archives, which can be read here.