Jesuit Education in India

The Society of Jesus, a Christian Religious Order founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola in 1540, has been active in the field of education throughout the world since its origin. In the world, the Jesuits are responsible for 3,897 Educational Institutions in 90 countries. These Jesuit Educational Institutions engage the efforts of approximately 1,34,303 teachers, educating approximately 29,28,806 students.

In India The Society of Jesus has founded 118 Primary & Middle Schools, 149 High Schools, 41 University Colleges, 22 Technical Institutes and 11 Business Administrations Institutes with 11,225 teachers, educating 3,24,538 students, belonging to every social class, community and linguistic group. This Institutions are part of the Catholic Church's effort to share in the country's educational undertaking.

The Jesuit College aims at the integral, personal formation of youth, to accomplish this, special efforts are made:

l           To help the students to become mature, spiritually-oriented men and women of character;

l           To encourage them continuously to strive after excellence in every field;

l           To value and judiciously use their freedom;

l           To be clear and firm on principals and courageous in action;

l           To be unselfish in the service of their fellowmen; and

l           To become agents of needed social change in their country.

The Jesuit College thus aims at making its own contribution towards a transformation of the present-day social condition so that principles of social justice, equality of opportunity, genuine freedom, and respect for religious and moral values, enshrined in the constitution of India, may prevail, and the possibility of living a fully human existence may be available to all.

 - Jesuit Education Association of India

St. Francis Xavier, Patron of the College

The Indian mission of the Jesuits lies at the very origin of their Order. It is to India that Ignatius of Loyola, the Founder of the Society of Jesus, sent his greatest son, Francis Xavier. Xavier was a zealous “missionary on the move”. He constantly traveled along the Fishery Coast, then west, into Marava country, then to Mylapore (present day Chennai).

 He sailed to Malacca and Japan in 1549 where he spent two and a half years. In April 1552 he sailed to China via Malacca from Goa, never to return alive. He died at Sancian, a small island facing China, on the 2nd of December of the same year. Wherever he went, he plunged himself into charitable and pastoral work preaching the message of God's love to people. He worked in India for ten years, from 1542 to 1552, it is called the Xaverian decade.