Pontifical Gregorian University - Notable Students and Professors

Notable Students and Professors

Further information: Category:Alumni of the Pontifical Gregorian University

Among the Gregorian's notable alumni are seventeen popes, including Pope Gregory XV, Pope Urban VIII, Pope Innocent X, Pope Clement XI, Pope Leo XIII, Pope Pius XII, Pope Paul VI, and Pope John Paul I. Eight of the eleven last popes were alumni of the Gregorian. Other illustrious students include seventy-two saints and beati, among them Saint Robert Bellarmine, Saint Aloysius Gonzaga and Saint Maximilian Kolbe. Among its most notable professors is Joseph Ratzinger—now Benedict XVI—who was a visiting professor in the Faculty of Theology during from 1972 to 1973.

Other famous alumni and professors include the following:

• Bartholomew I, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople
• Roger Boscovich, Jesuit physicist and mathematician
• James Tunstead Burtchaell, former provost and Department of Theology chairman of the University of Notre Dame
• David Cairns, Scottish politician
• Christopher Clavius, Jesuit inventor of the Gregorian calendar
• Craig J. N. de Paulo, Catholic philosopher and theologian, former student (PhD, 1995; PhL, 1994) and lecturer (1998-2000) at the Gregorian
• Denis Fahey, Irish theological writer
• Reginald Foster, world Latin expert (taught at the Gregorian until 2006)
• Filippo Grandi, current Commissioner-General of UNRWA
• Paul Guldin, Jesuit mathematician and astronomer
• Peter Henrici, Swiss Jesuit philosopher, Auxiliary Bishop of Chur, Switzerland
• Carlo Huber, German Jesuit, philosopher and former Dean and professor of philosophy at the Gregorian
• Athanasius Kircher, Renaissance polymath
• Francesco Lana de Terzi, Jesuit scientist often called the "father of aeronautics"
• Bernard Lonergan, 20th century Jesuit philosopher-theologian and economist
• John Navone, SJ, Professor Emeritus, Theologian, and prolific author
• Vincenzo Riccati, Jesuit inventor of hyperbolic functions
• Óscar Romero, Salvadoran archbishop and martyr
• Gian Vittorio Rossi, Italian poet, philologist, and historian
• Andrea Salvadori, Italian poet and librettist
• James V. Schall, SJ, Jesuit priest, teacher, writer, philosopher, and professor at Georgetown University
• Nico Sprokel, Dutch Jesuit priest, philosopher and professor at the Gregorian, student of Martin Heidegger
• Francis A. Sullivan, influential Jesuit theologian (graduated 1956; Professor of Ecclesiology, 1956–1992)
• David Tracy, influential American Catholic theologian (STL 1964; STD 1969)
• Luca Valerio, Jesuit mathematician
• Niccolò Zucchi, Jesuit astronomer and physicist

The vast majority of the Church's leading experts hail from the Gregorian; one-third of the current College of Cardinals studied there at one time or another, and more than 900 bishops worldwide are among its 12,000 living alumni.