St. Joseph's Boys' High School, Bangalore - The 'Society of Jesus' Association

The 'Society of Jesus' Association

As early as 1841 Bishop Bonnaud planned to start a Catholic High school in Bangalore. But this proposal took concrete shape only in 1854 when the priests of the Missions étrangères de Paris (MEP) bought a plot of land for a sum of INR 1000 at St. Johns Hill. Bangalore Fr. Bouteloup had a house constructed in 1854 at a cost of INR 3000 and this was named St. Joseph's Seminary. This house also contained an orphanage and a residential school.

The Madras University was established in 1858 and hence boarders could be admitted to prepare for the matriculation examination of the Madras University. Fr. Charbonnaux, who was in charge of the school at the time, made this entry in his diary: "We decided to open a school for European boys. As a knowledge of English in necessary to our Indian pupils and that of Canarese to European boys we determined to build a wing and a kitchen adjoining the Seminary." This was the beginning of St. Joseph's College. In the nomenclature of the day, in European usage a college was what today would be called a high school and what would today be called a college would be termed University. By May 1865 a new house was built to take in the orphans and boarders of the school.

It was difficult for the three departments, seminary, orphanage and school to function in the same building. Hence in 1875 the orphanage was transferred to St. Patrick's Church and still exists as St. Patrick's Orphanage. The Seminary closed down and hence the entire campus with all the buildings was utilized for the school and the boarding house. The school had a total of 144 students, 64 boarders and 80 day scholars.

The next most important development was the change made by the new Rector, Fr. Maurice Vissac in 1882. He had the school affiliated to the Madras University as a second grade college which could prepare and send students for the F.A. (First Arts) exams. In 1884, the first two candidates appeared for this exam and qualified.

In the period during and immediately after World War I, the French Fathers - MEP were finding it difficult to staff the school. The slaughter of the young men on the battle field of Europe from 1914 - 1918 had practically destroyed a whole generation of men, some of whom would have become priests and joined the MEP. The Bishop of Mysore, Msgr. Despastures under whose jurisdiction came Bangalore at that time decided to find a suitable religious order to whom he could entrust the institutions thus freeing his priests for pastoral ministry. His efforts to get the Canons of St. Maurice from Switzerland did not succeed as well as his efforts to get orders of teaching brothers.

He had earlier tried unsuccessfully to get the Jesuits, the Priests of the Society of Jesus founded by St. Ignatius Loyola, who were well known throughout the world as educationists to take over these institutions. The Bishop now approached the General of the Jesuits in Rome with the same appeal. He appointed a Visitor to study the matter on the spot. The visitor Fr. Van Kalken was endowed by the General with almost plenipotentiary powers to take a decision. In February 1937 he wrote to the Superior of the Jesuit Mission in Mangalore that Fr. General had approved that the Society of Jesus would accept the generous offer of the Bishop of Mysore and if the Mangalore mission of the Jesuits could not provide sufficient Jesuits then the Visitor would invite Jesuits from other Indian missions to offer their services for this work.

All St. Joseph’s institutions which included St. Joseph’s European High School, St. Joseph’s Indian High School situated at the ‘New Fields’ grounds on Vittal Mallya Road as well as St. Joseph’s College were thus transferred to Jesuit Management.

During the period leading up to World War II, the Italian Government with its leader Mussolini aligned itself with Hitler in the Axis against the British Allied troops, with the result that all the Italians and German priests were thus branded as enemy aliens and were interned. The Jesuit superiors had to then find Indians to manage the school. Fr.E.J. Jacques an Anglo Indian with an M.A. degree from he University of London and Fr. Studerus a Swiss and hence a neutral had to fill up the vacancies. And so, the baton passed on to Indian priests belonging to the Jesuit order to manage the school, which continues unto the present day.