History
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Blessed Kuriakose Elias Chavara
The CMI Order was started in 1831 by a group of priests of the Syro-Malabar Church, led by Blessed Kuriakose Elias Chavara (1805-1871). This first indigenous religious congregation in India did pioneering work in the field of education, without distinction of caste or creed.
Beginning with the first Catholic Sanskrit School in Kerala in 1846 and the first primary school eighteen years later, the congregation has built up a vast network of schools and colleges all over India. A distinguishing feature of these educational institutions is that they draw inspiration from the life of Jesus Christ as also from the sages and prophets of our land and are deeply rooted in its culture.