Abstract

The text is part of a larger study on the same subject, which in turn is part of a work in progress on Illich’s years in education (1926-1951). This excerpt presents the milieu in which Illich developed both humanly and spiritually during his training for the priesthood in Rome (1945-1950), as distinct from the institution where he studied philosophy and theology in the same years (the Pontifical Gregorian University). The text reconstructs how Capranica’s immense prestige was formed between the 19th and 20th centuries; it highlights the Collegio’s pedagogical and spiritual originality, as well as its impact on Illich’s personality, and describes life in it in the late 1940s, focusing especially on Ivan’s relationship with the rector Cesare Federici and the spiritual director Edoardo Malatesta.