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518 BENEDICT VADAKKEKARA The former general Minister Fr Bernard of Andermatt had already given thought to the plan of transforming the Order's St Fidelis College in Rome into the international college strongly recommended by the Holy See. The plan was evaluat– ed by a special commission, which found the building too restricted and inadequate to play host to the international college. But Fr Paciflcus was determined to open the college as it was the express wish ofthe Holy See, and he decided to begin the college straightawaywithin the narrow limits ofSt Fidelis College 38 • In the course of the audience granted on 21 May 1908 to the Protector of the Capuchin Order, Cardinal Agliardi, Pius X had approved the proposal of transfer– ring the Mass offerings in favour ofthe Institute ofthe Orient ( Tributum Missarum) to the Seraphic International College "to be erected in Urbe without delay" 39 • On 26 October 1908 at 09.00, "after overcoming various difficulties': the Inter– national College was inaugurated in the St Fidelis College "ad SS. Quatuor" in the presence ofa large concourse ofpersonages. As it had been functioning already as study house, it had the basic structures for playing host to the new students. The personal in– terest ofFr Pacifkus ofSeggiano in the project ofestablishing the college and his total commitment to its actualisation is lauded in glowing terms in the Report of the inau- 38 For a historical overview ofSt Fidelis College, see Eduardus Alenconiensis, Colleg# S. Fi– delisproMissionibus Ordinis FratrumMinorum Capuccinorum Conspectus historicus, Romae 1926, and B. Vadakkekara, L'impegno missionario dell'Ordine cappuccino durante ilpontificato del Beato Pio IX, in Pio IX. Numero unico. Atti del Convegno "Pio IX e le Missioni" Roma, 6 febbraio 2004, Roma 2004, 161-214. The college was formally opened on 24 April 1841 by the Capuchin general Minister Eugene ofRumilly in the Capuchin friary ofthe Immaculate Conception, Rome. The college had a chequered history. Though its end came formally with its transformation into the International College in 1908, its destiny was already sealed in 1884 when the Capuchin mis– sions were entrusted to the provinces, rendering irrelevant a centralised missionary formation institute. 39 AGC, FGl, Nota pro solo Definitorio Generali, De mandato SSmi D.N. Pii Papae X, in audientia diei 21 Maii 1908: "Tributum Missarum pro lnstituto Orientis a bona memoria Rmi. P. Aegidii a Cortona statutum utilitati et urgenti necessitati totius Ordinis deinceps applicabitur, scilicet Collegio Seraphico lnternationali in Urbe sine mora erigendo; translatis alibi clericis studiosis, novitiis, et alumnis seminarii seraphici hodie in ipso lnstituto existentibus. Missiones autem lnstituto assignatae quamprimum dividantur inter Provincias Ordinis, servato Statuto Missionum. Sub debitis cautelis ne animo turbentur, qui lnstituti Orientis promotores et adjutores praecipui fuerunt; quorum opus non reprobatur, sed mutatur ad bonum Comune Ordinis, ex quo bono ipsae Missiones Orientis incrementum et ornatum suscepturae sunt maximum. Curent proinde Moderatores Generales, ut linguae vulgares Orientis assidue studio excolantur a clericis et sacerdotibus ad Orientem destinatis vel in Oriente existentibus; et ad Ordinem recipiant nonnullos ex Orientalibus Bulgariae et Asiae a Deo vocatis, qui, praeter alia requisita, linguas in Missionibus Orientis vigentes ab ipsa infantia calleant".