St Ignatius of Loyola laid the foundations of the Pontifical Gregorian University by establishing a ‘School of Grammar, Humanities and Christian Doctrine’ in 1551, which already received the faculty of conferring academic degrees in the following year. Gregory XIII wanted to build from the foundations a new seat, solemnly inaugurated in 1584, for what was to be called the ‘Roman College’ for many centuries. In 1873, by order of Pius IX, the university officially changed its name to the current one of Pontifical Gregorian University, in honour of its ‘founder and protector’ Pope Gregory XIII.

On May 7,1909, Pius X, in his Apostolic Letter Vinea electa, founded the Pontifical Biblical Institute as a centre for advanced studies of the Holy Scripture in the city of Rome, entrusting it a few days later to the Society of Jesus. Ten years later, the Jerusalem seat of the Pontifical Biblical Institute was erected.

On October 15, 1917, Benedict XV established the Pontifical Oriental Institute with the motu proprio Orientis Catholici as a proper seat of higher studies in Rome concerning Oriental matters. In 1922 the Orientale was also entrusted to the Society of Jesus.

In recent years, the pontiffs have emphasised the importance of a synergy between these academic institutions entrusted to the Society of Jesus. Pope Francis, receiving in audience the communities of the Pontifical Gregorian University, the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical Oriental Institute, reiterated the importance «that collaboration and synergy develop among you, safeguarding the historic memory and at the same time informed of the present and looking to the future […] with creativity and imagination, seeking to form a global vision of the situations and present challenges and a shared way of facing them, finding new paths without fear» (10 April 2014).

On December 17, 2019, Pope Francis’ chirograph was issued by which he ordered that the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical Oriental Institute, “while retaining their names, be so closely joined to the Pontifical Gregorian University that they form part of the same juridical person, as academic units of this University”. The General Statutes of the new Pontifical Gregorian University came into force on May 19, 2024, the Solemnity of Pentecost.

Committed to the pedagogical tradition of the Society of Jesus, the Gregorian University focuses on excellence in studies, the integral formation as well as a human and spiritual growth for each student. We give our best so that every student can be a protagonist of a “Church which goes forth” in mission and, at the same time, is capable of responding with depth and a spirit of service to the many challenges of today’s world. As a university entrusted to the Society of Jesus, we welcome the invitation of our Vice Grand Chancellor, Fr. Arturo Sosa S.J., to make every university a ‘source of reconciled life’.