Mangalore: St Agnes Convent centenary celebrations on Jan 12

Sr M Lydia
St Agnes Convent

Mangalore, Jan 9: St Agnes Convent, Bendore is all set to celebrate the centenary of its Foundation Day (1914-2014) with a public function on Sunday January 12. The Convent was started in 1914 in order to reach out for the education of girls in the suburban area around Kadri and Kankanady. St Ann’s School, Bolar started by the Sisters of the Apostolic Carmel, founded by Mother Veronica of the Passion, an English woman, in 1870; St Mary’s School, Falnir started to accommodate the increasing number of students; and Victoria Caste School, Dongenkery, Kodialbail (later shifted to Ladyhill) started at the persistent appeal of GSB Community for the education of their daughters, were the only three schools in South Canara district, to impart quality education exclusively for girls, in the much valued medium of English.

Mother Aloysia, the second Superior General of the Apostolic Carmel after five years of assiduous search and negotiations for some twenty different sites between Kankanady and Kadri, including a plot of “Hulli Mulli” an arid area, and the surrounding plots, which were inhabited by sixteen proprietors in clustered huts and cottages measuring twelve acres of land, were bought on June 29, 1913.

February 8, 1914 was a memorable day in the history of the Apostolic Carmel when Dr Paul Perini, Bishop of Mangalore blessed the whole property and laid the foundation for St Agnes Convent, the residence for the Sisters to carry out their service to women through education. The next day a Secondary English Medium School, as it was called then, was opened with Classes I and II. There were 80 pupils on roll. A week later, an elementary school was opened for the poorer children with 46 pupils on roll. Since then the campus has grown with St Agnes School started in 1914, St Agnes College (the first college in India by an Indian private Management), St Agnes Special School for the Mentally Challenged started in 1970, as the Centenary Memorial of the establishment of the Apostolic Carmel. As the sisters of St Agnes Convent celebrate the hundred years of prayer and service on 12th January 2014, we remain ever grateful to God in transforming the Hulli Mulli Hill into an Educational hub, a light house, a city built on the hill where hundreds of students have been educated and enlightened over the past hundred glorious years and sent out to the wide world as the ambassadors of St Agnes to proclaim to all people that God is our Strength.

The concluding function of the Centenary of St Agnes Convent will be held on January 12. The Centenary Mass will be celebrated by Dr Aloysius Paul D’Souza, Bishop of Mangalore, with a large number of priests concelebrating with him at St Agnes College Auditorium. The Open Air public function that follows will have the Bishop as the president, Dr Sr Agatha Mary, Superior General of the Apostolic Carmel will be the chief guest, Sr Linette, Provincial Superior, J R Lobo, local MLA and Flavia Agnes, alumna, St Agnes and legal and social activist from Mumbai will be the guests of honour. A documentary on the history of St Agnes Convent and a dance drama on the life and times of Mother Aloysia, the founder St Agnes Convent will be the highlights of the programme. The former Superiors of the Convent will also be felicitated. Among the Centenary projects will be the poor students’ fund to be initiated.

St Agnes Convent – Centenary Celebrations
(1914 – 2014)

“Foremost in the roll of Indian women educationists stands the name of Mother Aloysia of the Sacred Heart, the second Superior General of the Apostolic Carmel. Almost a pioneer in the west coast field of education, she has for half a century and more laboured with untiring energy to raise the intellectual standard of our girls to the highest accepted grade.”

This was the tribute paid by J B Machado, Secretary of the Indian Christian Civic League, Mangalore, for the achievements of Mother Aloysia, in the field of education when nominated for the Kaiser-i-Hind, Gold Medal I Class award from the British Administration, in recognition of her services. We are presenting this valiant woman and her band of committed sisters, who founded St Agnes Convent, Bendore, Mangalore as we are poised to celebrate the Centenary of its establishment and that of the school, St Agnes School. The lamp that was lit by Mother Aloysia at St Agnes in the year 1914 has been kept burning for the past hundred years by every sister who lived at St Agnes with the oil of love, prayer, sacrifice and service.

Old Primary School

St Agnes in 1921

'The Rest' where St Agnes Special School was started

Mother Veronica, nee Sophie Leeves, an English woman was chosen and called by God to found a “Carmel for the Missions” in India towards the faith formation of the Catholics and the education of the young girls along the west coast. The dream of education that Mother Veronica harboured in her heart when she was serving in Calicut as a sister of St Joseph of the Apparition, “…all along the coast the young girls are entirely without any means of instruction…”, was realized when she started the Apostolic Carmel in France in 1868 and the three sisters trained by her arrived in Mangalore on 19th November 1870. Mother Marie des Anges, French by origin was the First Superior General and was called the Nurturing Mother while the one who shaped the Apostolic Carmel education was Mother Aloysia nee Mary Pia Rosario. The pioneering of quality education for girls thus belongs to the Apostolic Carmel with the starting of St Ann’s Convent and School in 1870, at Pandeshwar, Mangalore preceding even a school of this caliber for boys’ education which happened only in 1880.

In the first decade of the 20th century, St Ann’s High School flourished and St Mary’s, Marjil, the offshoot of St Ann’s, to accommodate the growing number of students and the Victoria Caste School at Dongerkery, Kodialbail, (later shifted to Ladyhill) the outcome of the persistent appeal of the GSB community for the education of their daughters were the only schools in South Canara district, to impart education exclusively for girls, in the much valued medium of English. These schools were nearer the central location of Mangalore. At this time, Mother Aloysia, who was elected as the Second Superior General and who was literally the brain behind the three schools, with her wide vision and deep apostolic spirit saw the need for extending the facilities to a larger number of girls by opening a school for girls in Bendore, the suburb and an underdeveloped area away from the township at Bolar. After five years of assiduous search and negotiations for some twenty different sites, a plot of “Hulli Mulli”, an arid area belonging to the ancestors of Sr Julia’s and the surrounding plots which were inhabited by sixteen proprietors in clustered huts and cottages measuring twelve acres of land, were bought on June 29, 1913.

February 8, 1914 was a memorable day in the history of the Apostolic Carmel when Dr Paul Perini, Bishop of Mangalore blessed the whole property and laid the foundation for St Agnes Convent. The next day a Secondary English Medium School, as it was called then, was opened with Classes I and II. There were 80 pupils on roll. A week later, an elementary school was opened for the poorer children with 46 pupils on roll. Mother Aloysia chose St Agnes as the patron saint of the convent and of all the institutions on the campus with the motto “God is our strength”. Young girls desirous of studying in English medium flocked to St Agnes Convent from Udupi, Kallianpur, Kundapur, Karkal. Mulki, Kinnigoli, Belthangady and other surrounding villages. The original old cottages were fitted up as dormitories and a boarding house was started.

Realizing that girls from their sheltered homes would hardly dare to go as far as Madras, Mother Aloysia envisioned higher education for girls. July 2, 1921 was another day of significance in the history of St Agnes when a college was started under her dynamic leadership and far sighted vision. St Agnes First Grade College was the only one for women in South India and the first in the whole of India to be run by an Indian private management. To meet the ever growing demands for admissions that came in from the rural areas a temporary “L” shaped building was put up on the plot closest to the road. This block stood for 82 years when more spacious buildings came up to accommodate the growing number of students.

Mother Theodosia another woman of caliber and a dynamic personality with practical experience took charge as Principal in 1934. She took the initiative of introducing Science into the Intermediate Course, an option till then not available to women. By adding subjects such as Mathematics in 1936, Natural science in 1937 and Chemistry in 1939, the college gradually blossomed. Through the years under the leadership of Principals and faculty with dynamism and commitment, St Agnes College has grown with several more courses and programmes. In 2007 St Agnes College obtained academic autonomy. Soon after, the Post Graduate Programmes were introduced and another block was erected for the same.

The Intermediate Course was changed into Pre-University in 1955 and at the same time St Agnes College parted ways from Madras University with the re-organization of states and was affiliated under Mysore University. In 2001 St Agnes Pre-university College was bifurcated and was accommodated in a new building.

The year 1970 was a landmark in the history of the Apostolic Carmel, the year of the Centenary of the establishment of the Apostolic Carmel in India. The pioneers of girls’ education in Mangalore had fresher avenues to explore and the education of children with disabilities was found to be the best Centenary Memorial to fill this void in Mangalore as there was no provision for the education of children with disabilities, in particular, the mentally challenged children. St Agnes Special School, the first school for the mentally challenged in the district, was inaugurated on August 4, 1970 with five children, in ‘The Rest’, a cozy house on St Agnes Convent premises with the motto, ‘In Love We Grow’. In 1973 the children were shifted to the premises opposite St Agnes Convent in the new building that was constructed.

The mission of the sisters of St Agnes Convent in educating the youth from Kindergarten to Post graduation has attained fruition where 5330 students illumine the campus today not merely aspiring towards academic excellence but very importantly using the many opportunities for strengthening faith and values of the students. Besides educating the youth, the sisters offer humane services to the society, the local church and the society at large in every possible way. In 1998 the Apostolic Carmel Association (ACA) was started for the purpose of sharing the spirituality of the congregation with lay people.

With heads bowed and hands folded in gratitude to God, as we, the sisters of St Agnes Convent celebrate the hundred years of prayer and service on January 12, we remain ever grateful to God in transforming the Hulli Mulli Hill into an educational hub, a light house, a city built on the hill where hundreds of students have been educated and enlightened over the past hundred glorious years and sent out to the wide world as the ambassadors of St Agnes to proclaim to all people that God is our Strength.