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A Short History of the Faculty *
Popes have
granted the power to confer academic degrees to the Servite
Order from the very time of its foundation. Boniface IX gave this privilege to the
Prior General on January 30, 1398 and it was later ratified and promulgated
with even more favorable laws by his successors: Innocent VII (July 11, 1604), Paul V
(June 6, 1606), Urban VIII (December 19, 1633 and January 9, 1639) and Alexander
VII (April 10, 1658). *
On February
26, 1666, the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars canonically erected
the Henry of Ghent College in the
priory of San Marcello in Rome.
The college had the power to grant its students
academic degrees in Sacred Theology and with the Bull Militantis Ecclesiae (February 21, 1669) Clement IX approved the
college’s statutes. After
two centuries of productive activity the college was suppressed in 1870 but it
was re-established in 1895 and renamed St. Alexis Falconieri
College and in 1928 it moved to its present location at 6, Viale Trenta Aprile, Rome. *
Over time
the college conformed to the norms set out in the Apostolic Constitution Deus Scientiarum
Dominus (May 14, 1931) and on November 30, Holy Year 1950, through the Congregation
for Seminaries and Universities Pius XII raised the college to the rank of
Theological Faculty reserved for Servite friars. After a five-year trial period the
Congregation issued the decree Caelesti Honorandae Reginae
(December 8, 1955) which definitively approved the erection of the
Theological Faculty, approved its statutes and confirmed its right to confer
academic theology degrees on Servite students. The Faculty was officially called the
“Marianum.” *
During the
1957-1958 School Year a two-year course of philosophy was established in Florence. At the same time a special Mariology
Institute was launched for promoting and studying Mary’s role in the
economy of salvation. The Institute
flourished and the Congregation
for Seminaries and Universities issued decree, Excelsam Matrem (March 7, 1960) that gave
official recognition to the Institute and approved its practice of conferring
a special Diploma in Mariology. The
decree Multa Sane (March 7, 1965) granted the Faculty
the right to confer a Doctorate in Theology with a Specialization in Mariology,
and the right to enroll clerical and religious students in its courses. *
The
Faculty rewrote its statutes and program in the light of the documents of the
Second Vatican Council and the 1968 Normae Quaedam. Greater emphasis was placed on the
Faculty’s Mariological goals. On January 1, 1971, the Congregation
for Catholic Education published a decree: Theologicas Collegii S. Alexii
Falconierii Scholas that
allowed the Marianum Theological Faculty to use the title of “Pontifical.”
Along with the title the Marianum assumed all the honors, rights and obligations
enjoyed by other Pontifical Universities and Faculties as well as the right
to enroll clerical, religious and lay students and in the name of the Holy
See grant them diplomas, titles and the Licentiate and Doctorate in Theology
with a “specialization in Mariology.” After publication of John Paul
II’s Apostolic Constitution Sapientia Christiana(1979)
and the norms attached by the Congregation for Catholic Education, our
Statutes were rewritten and definitively approved in 1986. *
On the evening of December 10, 1988, Blessed Pope
John Paul II came to visit our Faculty.
He gave a talk which was memorable both for its doctrinal content and for
the program it set out for the Marianum and for the Servants of Mary in charge of the Faculty. He spoke about Mariology and made
special mention of the Congregation for Catholic Education Circular Letter: The Virgin Mary in Intellectual and
Spiritual Formation (March 25, 1988). It was, he said, “a precious document that I
would like to see read, studied and seriously applied. This document defines the
characteristics of Mariology: ‘It should be organic and an integral
part of theology; it should be
all-embracing – studying the person of Our Lady in the context of the
whole of Salvation History;
[…] it should be appropriate for the institution where it is taught
[…]and the students involved.” (no. 28).’ The application of these norms from
the Holy See will open new frontiers for Mariology.” * In paragraph 27 of his post-synodal exhortation Verbum Domini (September 30, 2010) Pope Benedict XVI makes an interesting and important contribution to the theology of the mystery of Mary and the teaching of Mariology. What he says goes beyond the simply academic; they encompass the ongoing theological, spiritual and practical formation of the people of God; this cannot be ignored. As the Pope says: “In our day the faithful need to be helped to see more clearly the link between Mary of Nazareth and the faith-filled hearing of God’s word. I would encourage scholars as well to study the relationship between Mariology and the theology of the word. This could prove most beneficial both for the spiritual life and for theological and biblical studies. Indeed, what the understanding of the faith has enabled us to know about Mary stands at the heart of Christian truth. The incarnation of the word cannot be conceived apart from the freedom of this young woman who by her assent decisively cooperated with the entrance of the eternal into time. Mary is the image of the Church in attentive hearing of the word of God, which took flesh in her. Mary also symbolizes openness to God and others; an active listening which internalizes and assimilates, one in which the word becomes a way of life.”
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