Golden Jubilee Year of Mount St Joseph - How it all began…..

November 7, 1956 proved to be a dream-come-true for the Province of Karnataka in having its own training college, as Fr Boniface D’Souza SJ, the Provincial, cut the first sod for the huge stone building of Mount St Joseph. It was Fr Cantoni, an Italian Jesuit known for his magnificent construction skills, who designed the building. The work started and the building was constructed over the next two years having the capacity to accommodate 40 novices, as many juniors in its two wings and a long Chapel, a refectory and some rooms for the stay of the Jesuits and the guests. Then the long-awaited novices first stepped into the house on May 1, 1959 on the feast of St Joseph the Worker to whom the house has been dedicated with Fr Cyril Pereira as the new Rector and Fr Apoline D’Souza as the Novice Director. The patronage of the head of the family of Nazareth was sought so that he might not only help to make the big house a true home but also in fond and firm hope that he would provide the necessary funds. And he did not fail. The blessing and inauguration of the house was solemnized by Archbishop Thomas Pothacumary of Bangalore on 22 August 1959, on the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to whom the Province is consecrated. Thus the nursery of the Karnataka Province made its auspicious start under the protective mantle of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the patronage of her spouse St Joseph - a dwelling place for the companions of Jesus. (Courtesy: My God, My Land, My People by Fr A P Menezes SJ and The Story of the Karnataka Jesuit Province by Fr Denis Pinto SJ)