Pontifical French Seminary

The seminary opened in 1853 with 12 students under the direction of Lamurien of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, an order which was in charge of the college until 2009.

[1] In 1856 Pius IX assigned to the seminary the Church of Santa Chiara with what had been the adjoining Poor Clare convent, founded in 1560 by St. Charles Borromeo on the ruins of the baths of Agrippa.

After the new Italian government evicted the College of Saint Thomas from the convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in 1873, the College was able to continue after the French seminary's Rector Tommaso Maria Zigliara offered refuge at the Pontifical French Seminary.

[2][3] Santa Chiara was rebuilt on the plan of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires in Paris, in 1883 the monastery was entirely remodeled to suit its present purpose.

[6] One of Le Floch's students was Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the founder of the traditionalist Roman Catholic Society of Saint Pius X, and he attributed his conservatism to the time he spent in the seminary.