550 YEARS OF THE CROATIAN INSTITUTIONS OF ST. JEROME’S IN ROME

The stamp has been issued in a 20-stamp sheet, and the Croatian Post has also issued the First Day Cover (FDC). In the Middle Ages, papal Rome was the spiritual, political and cultural centre of Europe of that time. Here, in this centre, a small Croatian community was living there from time immemorial, and it was their wish to have their spiritual meeting-place. Pope Nicholas V lent his ear to the entreaty of the Croat Jerome (Jerolim) from Potomje and in 1453, issuing his letter Piis fidelium votis, he granted the Croatian community in Rome the use of the derelict church of St.Marina on the left bank of the river Tiber, in the immediate vicinity of the Emperor Augustus’s mausoleum. With his letter, the Pope gave his permission to the Croatian community to build an inn and hospital for Croatian pilgrims who used to come and visit the graves of the first Apostles. The Croatian community restored St.Marina’s church and gave her a new titular, the Dalmatian St.Jerome. Together with the church, there was a religious Brotherhood of the same name founded, called Congregation, that took over the running of the church, inn and hospital. The Brotherhood also took care of Croatian pilgrims, offering them overnight accommodation, food, medical treatment and financial support. A great number of famous Croats from the 16th to the 19th centuries used to be members of the Roman Brotherhood of St.Jerome’s. Among them the following should be specially emphasized: the philosopher Franjo Petrić, the “most learned man of his time”, Antun Vramec, Julije Klović, Faust Vrančić, Ivan Paštrić, Juraj Križanić, Ivan Lučić, Bishop Strossmayer, Ivan Kukuljević, Franjo Rački, and many others. In the middle of the 16th century, the Brotherhood and St.Jerome’s church became so prominent in Rome that in 1566, Pope Pius V entered this church into the order of “Cardinal churches”, i.e. among the most illustrious churches in Rome. The crucial event regarding Croatian institutions in Rome was when Felice Peretti was appointed Cardinal Titular of St.Jerome’s church in 1570. Cardinal Peretti is supposed to have had his origins in Kruščica, in the bay of Boka Kotorska. He continued bearing the title until he was chosen to be Pope Sixtus V in 1585. Among the popes, Sixtus V was undoubtedly the one who did a great job having the city of Rome built up and restored. However, the only church that he has had built was the present-day Croatian church of St.Jerome. In 1589, Sixtus V issued the papal bull Sapientiam sanctorum, by which he founded the Chapter with a prior, six canons and four prebendaries. Sixtus V kept the right to the sponsorship for himself and the members of the family Peretti-Montalto, i.e. the right to the choice of canons and prebendaries of this Chapter. He also gave the Chapter national features. This means that he had ruled that only those originating from the “Illyrian countries” and speaking the “Illyrian language” could become canons and prebendaries of this Chapter. This was the only national Chapter in Rome. Indeed, Sixtus V used the term “Illyrian” instead of “Croatian” referring to the language, but it is an undoubtable reference to the Croatian regions and the Croatian language. In 1656, the ecclesiastical tribunal, Sacred Roman Rota, reached the verdict that the term “Illyrian” should include Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Istria, whereas Carniola, Styria, Serbia and Monte Negro were denied this right. In 1790, Pope Pius VI established within these institutions an Institute for the education of priests from Croatian bishoprics who already had the right to be educated there. The Collegium was active during the periods 1793-1798, then 1863-1871, and finally between 1884 and 1891. The Croatian bishops have definitely wanted to have an Institute in Rome where priests could continue and complete their studies at the papal universities, do their research and achieve master’s and doctoral degrees. Following their suggestions and entreaties, in 1901 Pope Leo XIII issued the document Slavorum gentem by which he revoked the Chapter and inn and founded the Institute of St.Jerome’s for the Croatian people. In 1971, Pope Paul VI gave the institute its current name, Croatian Papal Institute of St.Jerome’s. On the eve of the Second World War, the rector of the Institute of that time, Monsignor Juraj Magjarec, managed to have a big, new palace built in the Institute, for the accommodation of ecclesiastic students. Participating on the construction of the palace were the eminent Croatian artists Joza Kljaković and Ivan Meštrović. The Institute has a great number of works of art in its possession, and also has valuable archives and a richly supplied library. The institutions bearing St.Jerome’s name have been a long-lived precious witness to the Croatian presence in Rome, the centre of the Roman Catholic world and metropolis of Europe and the world. For more than five centuries, by its presence in the historical centre of Rome, centro storico, has a small nation shown and proved their existence and their cultural and religious affiliation. The Croatian colony in Rome has become a prototype and pattern for all other future Croatian colonies, established on all the five continents of the globe, showing how national identity could and should be preserved. An eminent group of highly educated priests have come from St.Jerome’s Institute. The Institute was patron to innumerable Croatian refugees at the time and after the Second World War and that specific, precious corner of the native land for each fellow-countryman abroad. Even today one can hear “the dear Croatian word” here, on the bank of the Tiber. Andrija Lukinović