Heritage

Our lodestar is Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara (1805-1871), the founder of Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI), the first indigenous religious congregation in India. Instead of confining his piety to the cloister, this great visionary distinguished himself as a social reformer, prolific writer and educationist. He heralded changes in the educational scenario of Kerala by starting, in 1864, the first free Sanskrit school that was open to all, irrespective of caste or creed. He insisted on having at least one school attached to each church. As a result, the CMI congregation today has a large network of 600 educational institutions ranging from play schools to professional colleges, spread across different countries and continents.