Its mission is to pursue research, teaching, and publishing related to the traditions of the Eastern Churches in their theology, liturgy, patristics, history, canon law, literature and languages, spirituality, archaeology, and questions of ecumenical and geopolitical importance.

The aim of the Orientale is to educate students already in possession of a first academic degree, irrespective of their religious affiliation, Latin or Eastern Catholic, Orthodox or otherwise, to deepen their knowledge of the Christian East in its Churches, theology, spirituality, liturgy, discipline, history, and culture.

The Orientale’s first provisional seat was in the immediate vicinity of the Vatican, in the Palazzo dei Convertendi, Piazza Scossacavalli, which later had to give way to Via della Conciliazione.

The question reached its acme in the Eucharistic Congress of Jerusalem in 1893, when the Eastern Catholic Patriarchs made the grievances of their communities known to the papal legate, Cardinal Benoît Langenieux, who forwarded them to the pope.

Already three years after founding the Orientale, Benedict XV granted it, through the apostolic constitution, Quod nobis in condendo, the right to confer degrees.

[15] From the start the pope insisted on the necessity of a richly supplied Eastern library[16] to second the study and the research of the Orientale population.

A very talented man, he managed to impart to the nascent institution new élan, with its own publications and even the new seat in the Piazza di Santa Maria Maggiore.

D’Herbigny was followed as president by Emil Hermann (1932-1951), a German canon lawyer of note, whose prudence helped him guide the Institute during the war period; Ignacio Ortiz de Urbina (1951-1957), a Basque and a renowned patristic scholar; Alphonse Raes (1957-1962), an accomplished Syriac scholar who became Prefect of the Vatican Library; Joseph Gill (1962-1963), a great expert on the Council of Florence (1438-1445) and chief editor of the Acts of this council; and again Joseph Gill (1964-1967), who in 1965 began to bear the title of Jesuit Rector; Ivan Žužek (1967-1972), later the secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the revision of Eastern canon law; Georges Dejaifve (1972-1976), noted ecumenist; Eduard Huber (1976-1981), former rector of the Meudon School of Russian; Peter-Hans Kolvenbach (1981-1983), who after a brief stint became Superior general of the Society of Jesus for a quarter of a century (1983-2008); Gilles Pelland (1984-1986), who was soon made rector of the Gregorian University; Gino Piovesana (1986-1990), whose experience as rector of the Sophia University of Tokyo and his expertise in Russian philosophy stood him in good stead; Clarence Gallagher (1990-1995), a canon lawyer, dean and rector; Gilles Pelland (1995-1998), the only rector to have two different terms separated in time; Hèctor Vall Vilardell (1998-2007), whose aplomb assured him nine years as rector; Cyril Vasil' (2007-2009), who after two years became Secretary of the Congregation; Sunny Kokkaravalayil (May 2009-May 2010), who was pro-rector for a year and superior for seven; James McCann (2010-2015), who after leaving office became Senior Vice President of the Gregorian Foundation, New York; Samir Khalil Samir, who was pro-rector from 20 April 2015 to 25 August 2015, and David Nazar (2015-), in whose term the Orientale was not only re-structured but also became fused, as a community, with the adjoining community of the Pontifical Russian College, popularly known as Russicum.

Then followed a thirty-year period bringing us to the eve of Vatican II (1928-1958), when already some of the rich harvest that was expected began to be reaped, and the foundations for others to build on had been laid.

Yet the next thirty years after the council up to 1989, the fresh breath of Vatican II brought accrued interest in the Christian East and in the Orientale.

Some books which were discarded during the early years of the Soviet Union were bought for the Orientale Library, such that it alone has the entire Pravda collection, for example.

The "aula magna", a conference hall which hosts part of the library and was re-furbished for the centenary celebrations in 2017, provides a "safe space" for international discussions on problematic yet delicate themes.

Syria, autocephaly, genocide, nonviolence, are some of the themes to which imams, diplomats, Patriarchs, Cardinals, and "people on the ground" have participated.

Besides Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopic, and Georgian, which have become part and parcel of the curriculum, in recent years modern Greek and Romanian have been added.

The Orientale, with its professors of canon law, continues to serve as the main centre for the elaboration of the Code which is used around the world by both Catholic and Orthodox churches of the East.

(b) Another monumental contribution was the critical edition of the documents of the Council of Florence (1438-1445)[27] by the professors of the Faculty of Eastern Ecclesial Sciences.

[28] Among other scholarly works of note are the finest study to date, in 6 volumes, of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom; the Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Christian East; annotated translations of 9th-13th-century Syrian manuscripts; a seven-volume edition of Vatican archival documents on the Armenian Question (1894-1925); a similar edition on the Chaldean-Assyrian question (1908-1938); annotated catalog of 150 Ethiopian manuscripts; detailed archaeological studies of mosaics, frescoes, and architecture of the early church in Asia Minor, and so on.

[29] Marcel Viller, SJ, after teaching patristics at the Orientale, moved to become one of the founders of the monumental Dictionnaire de Spiritualité.

[34] A promising theologian, who was shot dead by the Nazis during World War II, studied here, too: Yves de Montcheiul, SJ (1900-1942).