The English College, Rome

During the Schola’s recent visit to Rome, the boys of the Schola were given a tour of the English College by two former pupils of the London Oratory School who are now studying for the priesthood there. The magnificent chapel, pictured above, has been restored in recent years. During Elizabethan times the seminarians would gather around the painting on the west wall to sing the Te Deum whenever news reached them that one of their recently-ordained brethren had been martyred in England. The tour also included the library where we were shown a letter from St Charles Borromeo to the Rector of the College and a copy of the Catechism signed by Pope John Paul II: