superior for seven; James McCann (2010-2015), who after leaving office became Senior Vice President of the Gregorian Foundation, New York; Samir Khalil Samir, who was pro-rector from 20 April 2015 to 25 August 2015, and David Nazar (2015-), in whose term the Orientale was not only re-structured but also became fused, as a community, with the adjoining community of the Pontifical Russian College, popularly known as Russicum. The hundred year history of the institution (1917-2017) may tentatively be divided, first, into an eleven year period at the beginning, when the Orientale was trying to assert itself and become recognized, which came with Pius XI’s encyclical dedicated to the Orientale, Rerum orientalium (1928). Then followed a thirty-year period bringing us to the eve of Vatican II (1928-1958), when already some of the rich harvest that was expected began to be reaped, and the foundations for others to build on had been laid. Yet the next thirty years after the council up to 1989, the fresh breath of Vatican II brought accrued interest in the Christian East and in the Orientale. When with 1989 Eastern Europe opened up, a new chapter of the Orientale’s relating to the hitherto forbidden East started and many new students from these countries could now study at the Orientale. The library The Pontifical Library of the Institute is without a doubt the greatest gem of the Orientale. It is one of the best equipped libraries regarding the Christian East in the world. Some books which were discarded during the early years of the Soviet Union were bought for the Orientale Library, such that it alone has the entire Pravda collection, for example. The library space was considerably enlarged by John Paul II after his visit to the Orientale in 1987. The "aula magna", a conference hall which hosts part of the library and was re-furbished for the centenary celebrations in 2017, provides a "safe space" for international discussions on problematic yet delicate themes. Syria, autocephaly, genocide, nonviolence, are some of the themes to which imams, diplomats, Patriarchs, Cardinals, and "people on the ground" have participated. Academics Faculties and languages As an Institute, the Orientale has only two faculties, one for ecclesiastical sciences, the other for Eastern canon law. At first there was only one faculty, and it comprised the programme already outlined in Benedict XV's founding charter (1917), that is theology, comprising spirituality, liturgy, and canon law,