THE BRILLIANT EDUCATIONAL CAREER OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF VERAPOLY

THE BRILLIANT EDUCATIONAL CAREER OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF VERAPOLY
In April 1995 a team of 25 Malaya lee literary men visited Germany to join their counterparts there for celebrating the first Birth Centenary of Dr. Herman Gundert. The team included such luminaries as Dr. K.M. George, S. Guptan Nair, O.N.V.Kurup, P.Govinda Pillai, Chemmanam Chacko, D.C. Kizhakemuri, Scariah Zachariah and others. One of the many centres’ of learning visited by the team during the 7 days programme in the state of Stuttgart in Germany was the University City of Tubingen. The organizers had put up an interesting exhibition of old and valuable manuscripts mainly collected by Dr. Hermann Gundert. One of the exhibits was a rather voluminous Malayalam Lexicon (Acaridae) prepared by a ‘Jesuit’ missionary residing in Verapoly. Such was the notice paste on the important exhibit. Dr. John Ochanthuruth and the present writer both members of the team happened to see the notice. They realized the mistake and at once called the attention of the organizers and got the notice corrected then and there. The Jesuit missionaries never stayed in Verapoly. In fact it was a Carmelite Missionary who composed this valuable Lexicon.
This incident demonstrated how the valuable contributions of the Carmelite Missionaries of Verapoly go unnoticed or worse, arrogated by some others because of default or by a false sense of humility. Neither the Missionaries themselves or their successors did anything bring their valuable contributions and achievements of the Carmelite missionaries of Verapoly lay spread over various fields such as literary, scientific, ecclesiastical, Governmental, educational etc., in this article we confine ourselves only to the educational contributions of the Archdiocese of Verapoly, with special reference to the period of the Carmelite Missionaries.
Just as in the case of literary activities, the Carmelite Missionaries of Verapoly were pioneers in the field of education also according to the need, style and spirit of the time. It is true that they did not adopt the same style and method, which the later Protestant Missionaries adopted in their time. Their urgent and active attention was bestowed on the religious education of the people which was the primary motive of their coming down to India.
The Carmelite Missionaries first arrived in Kerala in 1655. Their leaded was Fra.Joseph Sebastian of immortal memory. He travelled to India courting many ordeals. The Pope had given him the charge of reconciling the St. Thomas Christians of Malabar with Rome. They had severed all connections with the Portuguese on account of what is known in history as the “Koon and Cross Oath” in 1653. When the Carmelite Missionaries settled down in Malabar, they built their first church at Chathith, a hamlet couple of miles to the north of the present city of Ernakulum, in 1673, thanks to the diplomacy of one of the Carmelite fathers, Fr. Mathews O.C.D. In the same year Fr. Mathews himself built their second church at Verapuzha a picturesque island along the bank of the river Periyar. The beautiful church over looked a panoramic view of the conjunction of Periyar by its own branch at Eloor. Though the Carmelite Fathers started residing in Verpuzha from 1673, it was made the seat of the Vicar Apostolic of Malabar only in 1700 when Fr. Angelo Francis was made the Vicar Apostolic (Bishop) of the Vicariate of Malabar. It is this Angelo Francis who wrote the very first Malayalam Grammar by name “Gramatica Lingua Vulgar is Malabarica” (Purushothaman Nair, The Christian Heritage of Kerala. P.135). Two years after the errection of the church at the Verapuzha i.e. in 1675, the Carmelite Missionaries residing at Verapuzha opened a Seminary there, attached to their house for the training of native priests. If you had well educated clergy, then you will have a well informed laity. A Seminary was the crying need of the time. “This Seminary later became one of the best in Asia. One hundred years later in 1764 this Seminary was rebuilt with permission of the propaganda Congregation of Rome instilling new life it”, says Cardinal Tisserant. To the Seminary was added a Catechuminate in the same year (this building still remains as also the Seminary building in Verapoly) in order to educate the new converts not only in religion but also in matters useful for life, such as the three R’s. In those days the converts were in large numbers. Hundreds of such neophytes lived in this famous Catechuminates existed not only in Verapoly, but also in Kottayam and Kalamasery.
Though the Portuguese established several great centre’s of higher learning such as St. Paul’s College Cochin, the Vaipicotta Seminary Cranganoor etc...The Carmete Missionaries who followed them could not pay much attention to secular education because they had to pay special and undivided attention to the preservation of the ancient faith of the people against many threats of heresy and schism. They also had to attend to the effective formation of priests. Moreover they had to grapple with the continual problems of the external threats of heresy and schism arising out of the intervention of Oriental Prelates visiting Malabar and frequent dissention within the community.
With the establishment of the British power in Malabar with the conquest of Cochin on 20th October 1795, the Carmelite Missionaries in Verapoly were free of the skeptical Dutch yoke, but had to contend with a new challenge-the spread of Protestantism. Protestantism made its advances on a three pronged front namely large scale conversion of the low caste people into Protestantism, modern English Education which attracted thousands to Protestantism and the vigorous dissemination of Protestant literature, which was made available in plenty. We confine ourselves to the subject of modern English Education which changed the face of India on a large scale.
One of the most efficient vehicles through which Protestant Missionaries, with the strong backing of the EAST India Company and later that of the British Crown spread Protestantism, was Modern English Education. The British wanted to rule India as a country in Britain. The best method for achieving this end was evidently to make English, the language of administration. This they did by introducing their system of Government, administration, Judiciary and even their system of parliament though to a lesser degree. All transactions took place in English. Literature and Journalism also developed in the English language. Naturally any one wishes to learn English. Thus were opened several English schools all over India from the elementary to the University levels. This, of course, was very attractive and empowering.
“The first English language school was opened in Travancore in 1805 by a German Protestant Missionary Rev. W.T. Ringletauble. The famous British Missionary Organization, the Church Mission Society established itself at Kottayam and started English education there in 1816 in what is no known as the Old Seminary. In 1838 the C.M.S. College was established”. This has been quoted by Prof. L.M. Pylee in his book “St. Thomas Christians and the Archdiocese of Verapoly.” P.213. Conversion into Protestantism was to rampant that under the influence of the Protestant Missionary Centre, Kottayam, there were some 36000 Protestant Christians in and around Kottayam alone in 1900.
The first English School- Christian David School-was started in Trivandrum in 1821. The first Government English School in Trivandrum was established by the Protestant Missionary Mr. John Roberts in 1831 at the insistence of Travancore Maharaja Sri. Swathe Thirunal. This school later developed into Raja School and still later into the Maharaja’s College, Trivandrum. All these and similar efforts in Travancore under various Protestant Missionary organizations were instrumental in spreading English education far and wide through which vigorous Protestant prosylitisation made great headway. Tracks, books and leaflets published in English by the Protestant Missionaries also contributed greatly towards conversion into Protestantism. Naturally this posed a great missionary challenge to the Verapoly Vicariate. The Carmelite Missionaries in Verapoly realized the great importance of having a network of schools both in English and in the Vernacular as a means of religious instruction and also for safe-guarding the faithful from the Protestant errors.
As a result of these developments a few elementary schools were started in various parts of the Vicariate. The earliest one was started in Vypeen Murukumpadam in 1836. Another school was opened in Thykoodam, near Thripoonithura in 1840. The third and fourth were opened in the Perumanoor parish in 1868 under the names K.P.School and St. George School respectively.
Archbishop Bernadine Beccinelli who ruled the Vicariate from 1853 to 1868 was one of the most illustrious Vicars Apostolic of Verapoly, was responsible for some of the most important historic development of religious congregations for men and women. Though couple of schools was opened before he became the Vicar Apostolic, he formally inaugurated a new age of formal education in the Vicariate. He published a formal Pastoral letter making it compulsory on every Parish Priest to open one or more elementary schools in each parish which were open to all children irrespective if caste or creed. This was, indeed, a revolutionary measure with regard to education in general and universal literacy in particular. At that time literacy was allowed only to the Hindu high caste. The children of the low caste got the first chance to learn the alphabets in these elementary schools which were commonly called in those days “Pallikoodams”, which means attached to the Churches. For supporting the schools, apart from permitting the Parish Priests to allot a portion of the parish income, he encouraged them to raise money by such means as “Pidiyari” and “Kettuthengu”. (“pidiyari” is a handful of rice taken from the rice which every family was about to cook each time and stored in an earthen ware, which will be delivered to the church at particular intervals and auctioned. “Kettuthengu” is the practice of allowing the parish the use frucks of a certain number of coconut trees, whose yield church will take). The system of “Pidiyari” was primarily stare for the construction and up-keep of the Seminaries and Monasteries, it also helped the parishes and “Pallikoodams” to a great extent, particularly for remunerating the teachers who were in the beginning mostly Non Christians. “Pidiyari” system got further formalized in the reign of Archbishop Leonard Mellano in October 1868 that is shortly after he took over charge of the Vicariate (L.M.Pylee Op.Cit.P.323).
No doubt, girls’ education is an important catalyst in social change and amelioration. We owe a great debt of gratitude to Archbishop Bernardine for the beginnings of girl’s education in Malabar. The Theresian Carmelite sisters (CMC and CTC) who were started by his initiative at Koonamavu in 1866 became in due course of time the premier institution in Malabar for girl’s education. It is, indeed, a heroic success story which, for lack of space, is not described here.
Archbishop Bernardine laid but the foundation of modern education in the Vicariate, which at the time comprised almost the whole of Malabar. It was his illustrious successor Archbishop Leonard Mellano who ruled the Archdiocese for almost thirty years from 1868 to 1897, first as the Vicar Apostolic and later as the first Archbishop of the first Archdiocese of Malabar, who laid the foundation of modern education in the Archdiocese. “For this purpose, he issued his famous Pastoral Letter dated 7th November 1872, calling upon all parishes to open schools and gave detailed directions for conducting them in the manner of real Catholic schools. He even ordered the opening of Sanskrit Schools for the purpose of imparting instruction in the Sanskrit Language.”
He bestowed his special attention on giving hi flock education in English thereby ensuring them of a chance to enter the ruling class. As already pointed out the British had opened English schools throughout the region either as Government run schools or as Protestant managed ones. Since there were no English schools under Catholic management in Malabar, the Catholic girls and boys were not able to acquire English education without running the risk of losing their faith and morals. So strong was the attempt on the part of the Protestants for Prosylitisation.
Seeing the need of the hour the Archbishop at first introduced the study of the English language in the curriculum of studies in the Puthenpally Seminary. In 1880 with great expectation, he opened the first English school in Fort Cochin by name St. Joseph’s College which was taken over by the Cochin Diocese in 1886 when it was bifurcated from the Archdiocese of Verapoly. Since then it has become the present Santa Cruz High School of Fort Cochin. “The object of the institution is to afford the Catholic youth of the Vicariate a good and sound education and a facility for prosecuting their higher education in English and Mathematics. Youths of other perusions are also admitted. In 1886 there were 187 students on the rolls a sizable strength for those days” (L.M. Pylee Op.Cit.P.325).
Likewise another school was opened at Fort Cochin around the same time by the Vicariate for the education of the girls, which received Government recognition and grant in aid. Similarly the Carmelite Missionaries working in Alleppy realizing the increasing influence of the Protestants their started a school there for the education of girls in 1879. This was entrusted to Miss Grace D’Lima, an English teacher brought from Madras especially for the purpose. Strange are the ways of God! Miss Grace became a Carmelite run taking the name of sister Theresa of St. Rose D’Lima. When the Cochin Diocese was resuscitated in 1886 Sr. Therese, however shifted her abode to Ernakulum in 1887, and thanks to the indomitable efforts of a veritable Carmelite Missionary Fr. Candid us, she opened a school for girls in Ernakulum. This institution steadily grew and became what is today known as the St.Theresa’s Educational Complex (This was the first women’s college in the Cochin State, started already in 1925 as a second grade college under the Madras University. This indeed was the premier educational institution in the erstwhile Cochin State, having won several recognitions from the Maharaja of Cochin).
St. Philomena’s High School, Koonammavu (residential) started in 1891 and St. Albert’s High School Ernakulum started in 1892 (initially with 30 boys on the rolls) were two others citadels of learning which owe their existence to Archbishop Leonard Mellano. St. Joseph’s Convent High School, Verapoly, St. Philomena’s Anglo-Vernacular School, Koonammavu, St. Joseph’s Convent Girl’s School, Kottayam are some of the other educational institutions which had their origin during the time of Archbishop Leonard Mellano. All these institutions are premier one in the state now.
Thus when the Vicariate was raised to the status of an Archdiocese in 1886, there were five Government recognized English schools in the Archdiocese which were attended by about 600 students of all denominations. In addition to this, there were 600 vernacular schools in the Archdiocese with a total strength of 6275 students, both boys and girls of all denominations. One can easily imagine the great social change brought about by these educational institutions in the region and the enormous contribution made towards the progress of all classes of people here.
Archbishop Leonard Mellano convoked and conducted the third Diocesan Synod of the Archdiocese of Verapoly on December 15 and 16, 1896. The decisions and constitutions of the Synod are contained in 27 titles or chapters. The 24th title or chapter deals with the schools. The Synod sets out the following principles and directions:
1.It is of utmost importance and usefulness that various kinds of schools such a Parish schools, or other types of schools including higher schools are to be established not only for the religious good but also for promoting civil good.
2. In such schools both boys and girls should be taught not only to read and write but also to lead truly human lives and to do their respective jobs.
3. Truly capable teachers should be selected; boys and girls should be taught separately.
4. The Vicar should do all in their power to establish at least one such schools in each parish an they should follow the same curriculum which is followed in the Government schools. In the main parishes the Vicar should raise such schools at least to the so called primary level.
5. The Vicars or their Assistants should visit such schools at least once in a week and where there are several schools they should visit at least every month. The students should be taught apart from the usual subjects the small catechism in primary schools and in the higher schools also the Bible History.
6.Whereever there are difficulties in supporting the schools, the faithful should be instructed to come up with assistance, and if this did not sufficient the Vicars are allowed, may ordered to use the funds of the parish or of the confraternity for this purpose. At least one parish school should be maintained solely from the resources of the Parish.
7. We should be informed of the state of such schools and their progress at least once a year.
8. In bigger cities Catholic students should be given more liberal education.
9. Catholic students should not be sent to Non Catholic schools unless under grave necessity and with our permission.
From what has been set forth above, it is clear that Archbishop Leonard Mellano did not leave any stone unturned for promoting the educational progress of this people in the Archdiocese.
Archbishop Bernard Argonzonis, who ruled the Archdiocese from 1897 to 1919, had a different educational policy from that of his predecessor. Though he encouraged elementary education he did little to provide English education. On the contrary the only English High School in the Archdiocese namely St. Philomena’s English High Schools, Koonammavu, was compelled to close itself down because of paucity of students and lack of support from the Archbishop (By that time the Syrians were separated from the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Verapoly. All the school, except St. Philomena’s, naturally had gone over to the newly created Syros-Malabar Vicariates). At the same time, he strictly forbade his flock from frequenting Non Catholic schools on pain of excommunication. However, he raised the St. Albert’s Middle School to a High School, in order to absorb the thrown out staff of the St. Philomena’s School, Koonammavu on its closing down. This, of course, seriously affected the prospect of the Latin Catholics getting higher education which consequently blocked their entry to the area of better employment and more political influence.
There I not much to be said about the higher education efforts of Archbishop Angel Mary (1919-1934) except that he encouraged a number of the clergy and the laity to go for higher education both here in Kerala and elsewhere. Archbishop Angel Mary sent a couple of Seminaries for higher studies at Rome. This bore rich fruits for the Archdiocese as seen in the case of his successor Archbishop Joseph Attipetty. It was again Archbishop Angel Mary who exonerated several lay people from excommunication which they had incurred during his predecessors time, for having attended Non Catholic schools without permission.
When Archbishop Joseph Attipetty succeeded Dr. Angel Mary in 1934 the following was the picture of the Educational Institutions in the Archdiocese:
No. of schools Attendance
Primary Schools 86 785
Upper Primary Schools 17 1797
High School 5 3106
University College 1 95
When Archbishop Joseph Attipetty died in 1970, the picture was as follows:
Primary Schools 80 27099
Upper Primary Schools 43 20388
High School 24 13233
Colleges 4 3640
Technical Schools 55 526
Training College 4 106
Special School 1 _
The above statistics are self explanatory. During the 37 years of shepherding his flock, Archbishop Attipetty gave top priority to provide all the possible facilities for the higher education of his people. By his own efforts he started two first grade colleges up to the post graduate level, apart from opening new high schools in different parts of the Archdiocese in order to cater to the needs of his people, as is seen clearly from the statistics given above. One of the harsh realities which dawned on Archbishop Joseph Attipetty, when he took office in 1934, was the fact that owing to various reasons, the members of his congregation in general stood far behind in modern education in comparison with their fellow Christians in other communities such as the Orthodox, the Syros-Malabar and the Protestant groups. He, therefore, brought all his energy on the project of establishing a university College in Ernakulum. There were insurmountable obstacles in the way, not only by way of financial difficulties, but also lack of eligible staff and management. Making capital out of this situation, adversaries brought all kinds of hurdles in the way of achieving the goal. He worked almost single handed on the project. He went abroad to USA and other foreign countries literally with a begging bowl. Thus in 1946, the St. Albert’s College was inaugurated in Ernakulum as an affiliate of the Madras University. This College has magnificent record in the educational history of Kerala. With several of its ex-alumni as Government Ministers, Bishops, Judges of High Court and even Supreme Court. All the hardships attendant on the establishment of the St. Albert’s College did not deter Archbishop Attipetty from achieving his yet another pet project- that of establishing the St. Paul’s College in Kalamasery. In 1964, when the Holy Father Pope Paul VI, came to Bombay to attend the Eucharistic Congress held there, Archbishop Attipetty carried the foundation Stone of St. Paul’s Kalamasery all the way to Bombay to get it and the St. Paul’s College, Kalamasery was inaugurated in 1965, the second First Grade College in the Archdiocese of Verapoly. This indeed is a magnificent achievement, two First Grade Colleges in one man’s life time. Both the colleges have at present courses up to the post graduate level and even a few professional courses.
Archbishop Attipety was never tired of encouraged the two indigenous Carmelite Congregations of Sisters to establish and run educational institutions of the highest standards. Both the congregations have under their management the most illustrious centre’s of learning. The congregations of the Teresian Carmelites (C.T.C) have a first grade college in Alva, (St.Xavier’s College) apart from several High schools for girls. The Carmelite sisters of St. Teresa, as already mentioned in the course of this article, established their St. Teresa’s College in Ernakulum already in 1925. This premier institution has blossomed into the St. Teresa’s Education complex of today.
Archbishop Attipetty also opened several Technical Training Centers and schools in order to provide job-oriented courses to his people. They are a veritable boon even to this day. The Little Flower Engineering Institute is the most illustrious among them.
It is not the intention of this article to describe the extra ordinary gifts and talents. Archbishop Attipetty had exhibited in providing higher education to his people, much less all other achievements of this in the various other fields he harvested during his long tenure of office.
The Carmelite Missionaries had laid but the small beginnings of the most needed infrastructure for the all round education of the people of the Archdiocese. On this infrastructure Archbishop Attipetty built up the beautiful edifice of modern education to the admiration and even the envy of others. It has been the endeavor of his successors to further build upon the well-laid foundation.
ArticleBy:Fr.GEORGE VELIPARAMBIL