Pontificial Institute of “Santa Maria dell’anima” in Rome

Brief historical notes. The Pontifical Institute “S. Maria dell’Anima” includes the church of the German-speaking Catholics in Rome and the adjacent Priests’ College. According to recent researches it was probably founded in 1350. It is first mentioned in a bull of Pope Boniface IX, in which the husband and wife Johannes Peter and Katharina of Dordrecht are named as its founders. The “Anima” was founded to the glory of the Mother of God under the title “beatae Mariae animarum” and served as a hospice for those of the German nation. On May 21, 1406 Pope Innocent VII endowed the hospital with a letter of protection, which placed it under the special guardianship of the Holy See and in so doing made it a papal foundation.