The priest college and the church of the German-speaking community in Rome, the “Anima,” look back on more than six hundred years of history. According to more recent research, the year of foundation was likely 1350; the first documented mention appears in 1398 in a bull issued by Pope Boniface IX. In it, the couple Johannes and Katharina Peters from Dordrecht (now in the Netherlands) are named as founders. The foundation was established in honor of the Mother of God under the title “beatae Mariae animarum” and served as a hospice for people of the German nation.
When the “Anima” needed support to overcome its initial financial difficulties, the later rector Dietrich von Niem played a particularly important role. He also provided the brotherhood, which administered the hospital, with statutes. On May 21, 1406, Pope Innocent VII granted the hospital a letter of protection, exempting it from parish and civic jurisdictions and placing it under the special protection of the Holy See. Shortly thereafter, the same pope reaffirmed the foundation, explicitly stating that the hospital was intended to gather, support, and restore the health of poor people and pilgrims of the German nation.
For its further development, not only the permission to establish its own cemetery but also the incorporation of the St. Andreas Hospital proved decisive. Through a bull of Pope Eugene IV in 1444, the “Anima” was authorized to provide pastoral care to German pilgrims and the poor, to celebrate regular services, and to administer the sacraments.
Although by 1499 only half a century had passed since the completion of the Gothic church of Santa Maria dell’Anima, the construction of a new church was decided. The reasons were likely rivalries among the different nations and the emerging Renaissance cultural spirit in Rome. In 1542, the completed church was finally consecrated. During his stay in Rome in 1511, Martin Luther wrote about “the German church in the hospital”: “it is the best, it has a German parish priest.”
In the following centuries, the history of the “Anima” was marked by several setbacks that at times called the very existence of the national institute into question. During the French Revolution, the church was plundered by French troops and the sacristy was used as a stable. Later, the Spanish Netherlands claimed the “Anima” as their foundation, while an increasingly strong Italian influence threatened to obscure its original character. In the latter cases, the House of Austria intervened in a corrective role due to its protectorate.
Santa Maria dell’Anima is the church of German-speaking Catholics and aims to offer them a piece of home while abroad. In 1859, Blessed Pope Pius IX founded the priest college of Santa Maria dell’Anima, where priests are given the opportunity to complete their studies, become better acquainted with the Roman Curia, and assist in the pastoral care of the German-speaking community in Rome. This applies to priests from the countries of the former Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.
