Mangalore : Centenary fete of St Agnes Convent inaugurated

Mangalore : Centenary fete of St Agnes Convent inaugurated

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Jan 24,2013:  The St Agnes Convent celebrated its centenary year on January  21. The grand celebrations were inaugurated by Dr Aloysius Paul D’Souza, Bishop of Mangalore, Sr Linette, Provincial Superior of Karnataka Province and Sr Maria Kripa, Superior of St Agnes Convent.

 

 

 

Fr Pius D’Souza, Superior of Infant Jesus Church, Bikarnakatte, Fr Antony Serrao, Parish Priest of Bendore, 15 priests and a large number of Apostolic Carmel Sisters, sisters from various congregations were present on the great occasion among others.

 The late Mother Aloysia, the Second Superior General  who had a great vision for the future, saw the need for opening a school for girls in Bendore which was then  an underdeveloped remote area.

A plot was purchased to achieve this endeavour and on  February 8, 1914, the then Bishop Paul Perini 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 class I and II. There were 80 pupils on roll. Subsequently, an elementary school for the poor was opened 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”. 

 

Another significant day in the history of St Agnes  Convent was July 2, 1921 when the St Agnes College came up for girls and was the only college for women in south India and first college in the whole of India run by a private management. Over the years the College has grown with the inclusion of a number of additional streams and various under graduate and post-graduate  programmes.  Presently, the St Agnes institutions offer education to 5,330 students.