Comillas Pontifical University

Pope Leo XIII founded the Seminary of St. Anthony of Padua in 1890 in the town of Comillas, (Province of Santander, currently Cantabria), in response to efforts made by the Marquess of Comillas to build an institution for educating local candidates to the priesthood. At the time of its foundation, the seminary was entrusted to the Society of Jesus. In 1904, the seminary was raised to the status of a Pontifical university when Pope Pius X granted the school the power to confer academic degrees in theology, philosophy and canon law.

In 1969 the university was moved to Madrid, where it admitted a wider range of students including international students.

In 1978 the Jesuits incorporated into the university their Madrid's higher education institution ICAI-ICADE, the resultant entity of the merger in 1960 of ICAI and ICADE, two institutes established in 1908 and 1956 respectively. They are today the ICAI School of Engineering, the ICADE School of Law and the ICADE School of Business and Economics.

Several other schools, like the San Juan de Dios School of Nursing, were incorporated later on, to reach the university's present structure of seven colleges and schools:

Facultad de Teología (Divinity School)

Facultad de Derecho Canónico (Canon Law School)

Facultad de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales (Human & Social Sciences School)

Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería ICAI (ICAI School of Engineering)