Archiepiscopal seminary of Milan
The archiepiscopal seminary of Milan is the seminary of Archdiocese of Milan.
At present it has three seats: in Venegono Inferiore (Varese province), Seveso (Monza e Brianza Province) and in Milan, in corso Venezia. In the latter have their place the ISMI (Istituto sacerdotale Maria Immacolata), that takes care of the continuous training of priests in during the first five years from ordination, and the Istituto Superiore di Scienze Religiose; other various diocesan activities have been holding there. In the other two sites training of seminarists of theology is supervised: in Seveso the I and II theology with the corso propedeutico, in Venegono the subsequent years (from III to VI theology).
History
The first seminary back to the times of St. Charles Borromeo: the site opened in 1564. Under the bishopric of Federico Borromeo took final form the location of the venue corso Venezia, under the name of Seminary of Porta Orientale. Besides its headquarters in Milan, St. Charles built several locations in the large diocese.
From 1638 to 1784 were seven: three in the city of Milan (the Seminary of Porta Orientale, the Seminary of Canonica, the Collegio Elvetico), four minor seminaries in Monza, Arona, Celana and Pollegio.
First reform school and then the presence of Napoleon's troops radically transformed the structure and the previous configuration: for various reasons ceased to be diocesan seminaries Celana, the Collegio Elvetico, the Seminary of Canonica and later Arona; a structure in Castello above Lecco was instead opened. In 1839 was the transfer of that seat at the Dominican convent of St. Peter Martyr in Seveso. With this step the configuration seminary route became so simplified: the ginnasio in Seveso, the liceo in Monza, the theology in Milan.
In the second part of the nineteenth century a seminary for poor students opened in Monza, entrusted to his father Barnabite Luigi Villoresi: training more flexible and open culture of the time (according to the inspirations from Antonio Rosmini) gave birth to a clergy visibly different from that formed with a more traditional way: this led to inevitable tensions. In 1900 a seminary was opened near the Duomo, which took the name Seminarietto, aimed at training those who were intended for liturgical service in the cathedral.
Following the apostolic visitation of the abbot Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster, then Archbishop of Milan, the site of Venegono Inferiore was built with the intention to move there the center of the seminary. The construction began in 1928, started off in 1930 and was solemnly inaugurated in 1935. In the following decades, when the liceo classico and the last three years of theology were placed in Venegono, there were several locations: Seveso (medie-ginnasio), Masnago (elementari-medie), Arcore (medie), Merate (medie), Seminarietto del Duomo (ginnasio-liceo), Saronno (biennium theological and comunità propedeutica), Milano (School for adult vocations).
In 1966 the Cardinal Giovanni Colombo decided to transfer the theological faculty (built by Pope Leo XIII in 1892) from Venegono Inferiore to Milan, thus forming the Facoltà Teologica dell'Italia Settentrionale.
The vocational crisis in the following years forced a reorganization of the community and led to the closure of many facilities. In 1985 the site was closed in Seveso: the ginnasio was transferred to Venegono and after a few years began restructuring. When construction ended in 1998 the community since then living in Saronno was transferred in Seveso. With the gradual extinction of the minor Seminary (closed in 2002 after several attempts for renewal and revitalization), the comunità propedeutica was added to the biennium theological in Seveso.
The restore of the permanent diaconate wanted by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini in 1986 has found its place in the headquarters of the Seminary.
Seminarists, professors and educators
Popes:
- Pio XI
Bishops and cardinals
- Giacomo Biffi
- Franco Giulio Brambilla
- Gabriele Giordano Caccia
- Adriano Caprioli
- Bernardo Citterio
- Francesco Coccopalmerio
- Diego Coletti
- Carlo Colombo
- Giovanni Colombo
- Renato Corti
- Mario Delpini
- Erminio De Scalzi
- Marco Ferrari
- Gervasio Gestori
- Giovanni Giudici
- Alessandro Maggiolini
- Angelo Mascheroni
- Attilio Nicora
- Giulio Oggioni
- Gianfranco Ravasi
- Carlo Roberto Maria Redaelli
- Giovanni Saldarini
- Luigi Stucchi
- Dionigi Tettamanzi
Theologians
- Giuseppe Colombo
- Franco Manzi
- Giovanni Moioli
- Pierangelo Sequeri
- Luigi Serenthà
- Sergio Ubbiali
Sources
- Il Seminario di Venegono 1935-1985. Pagine d'un cammino, a cura di Cesare Pasini - Mario Spezzibottiani, NED, Milano 1985.
- Mario Panizza, «Seminario Maggiore», in Dizionario della Chiesa ambrosiana, NED, Milano 1992, vol. V, 3310-3323.
- La formazione del presbitero diocesano. Linee educative del Seminario di Milano, Centro Ambrosiano, Milano 1995.
- Dionigi Tettamanzi, San Carlo e il seminario. La formazione dei futuri presbiteri in un mondo che cambia, Centro Ambrosiano, Milano 2006.
External links
- Seminario Arcivescovile di Milano website
- Permanent diaconate of Diocese of Milan
- Istituto Superiore di Scienze Religiose of Milan