St. Bartholomew Major College

Main facade, tower and cupola.

On 23 September 1604 six Jesuits came to Santafé from Cartagena to found the College of the Society of Jesus with support from the Archbishop of Bogota Don Bartolomé Lobo Guerrero.

The school was established on 27 September 1604 with a royal document authorizing its foundation. It opened on 1 January 1605 with 70 students.

The educational institution, although it was originally called the College of the Society of Jesus in Santa Fe, today is called the St. Bartholomew Major College, a name inherited from the seminary of the city re-founded by the Archbishop Don Bartolomé Lobo Guerrero on 18 October 1605 and located in what is now the Palacio de San Carlos. This seminary was run by the Jesuits. The seminarians and the borders both took their classes in the College of the Society of Jesus in Santa Fé, and called it the School and Seminary of St. Bartholomew.

By a bull of Gregory XV and by a royal document from Felipe IV issued in 1622, the College established itself as Xaverian University. Classrooms were in the current Museum of Colonial Art, which was part of the school building.

In 1704 the College which competed with the Rosary College took the name Royal Major College and Seminary of St. Bartholomew.

The Jesuits of St. Bartholomew brought the first printing press to Colombia.

7th street side

The year 1767 saw the expulsion of the Jesuits by the pragmatic sanction of Carlos III, and St. Bartholomew passed into the hands of the government. The library of the college became a founding part of the National Library of Colombia.

By order of the Junta Virreinal de Temporalidades in 1772 the Seminary College was moved to the College of St. Bartholomew and Xaverian University, and it assumed all the educational functions. In 1823, the State handed over to the Archdiocese the old convent of the Capuchins and chapel of San José for use of the Conciliar Seminary. Since 1826 the university studies continuing there assumed the name First District University or Central University, now the National University of Colombia, inaugurated on 25 December 1826 in a ceremony at the church of St. Ignatius of the College of St. Bartholomew.

In 1842, the university and the college, together with the museum and the national library, were under the government control and directed by a single superior, who was rector of the University and of the College of St. Bartholomew.

By 1844, under President Pedro Alcantara Herran, the Jesuits returned and took charge of the Seminary. But six years later, on 18 May 1850, they received a decree of expulsion from Jose Hilario Lopez and left Santa Marta. In 1857 under the government of President Mariano Ospina Rodriguez the Jesuits returned and on 8 January 1859 took charge of the College of St. Bartholomew.

Two and a half years later, on 26 July 1861, Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera returned and decreed the banishment of the Jesuits; the school became a public school. By 1865, its administration was given to the Cundinamarca Department and in 1866 nationalized. By 1882, under Rafael Núñez's presidency, the Jesuits returned to Panama and to Pasto, Colombia.

In 1887 the Company of Jesus returned to Bogota and the National School of St. Bartholomew was again put under their direction. In 1891 the first baccalaureate took place. In the year 1902, President Jose Manuel Marroquín and Archbishop Bernardo Herrera Restrepo, officially consecrated the nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 22.

Flag tower and cupola of St. Ignatius seen from Cúpula de San Ignacio

In 1928 the National Congress recognized the autonomy of the College by Law 44. It ceded the use of the building that was considered national property and it became a private school with the name of St. Bartholomew College. In 1930 Xaverian University was reestablished in the College. In 1937, the National Congress by Law 110 claimed the building, forcing the Jesuits to construct a new building on the grounds of La Merced[5] while appealing to the Supreme Court on ownership of the building.

In 1937 the high school students formed a football team that in 1946 became the current Millonarios Fútbol Club, the squad with the most professional football titles in the country.

With the possibility of expropriation of the school building, the Jesuits built a new one on La Merced farm. They continued the College under the name of St. Bartholomew La Merced College, without renouncing the rights they had on the College of St. Bartholomew on Bolivar Square. Construction was subsidized by the sale of part of the farm land, for a neighbourhood in La Merced. In 1941 classes began in the new school, and the old building was appropriated by the nation and run as a public school with the name of National College of St. Bartholomew.

On 10 January 1951, Laureano Gomez, president and graduate of St. Bartholomew secondary school, returned the national school to the Jesuits with a five-year contract,[5] by which they undertook to educate free 900 day pupils and 200 workers in night school. The government paid $25,000 pesos a month and ceded the building.[6]