St. Aloysius’ Orphanage & Day School Howrah

TIMES GONE BY

• 1845 Msgr Carew, 3rd Vicar Apostolic, opened residential-cum-day school named St Aloysius Seminary at 2 Cullen Place (presently 2 Mukhram Kanoria Road) Howrah and Rector Fr Megirr transferred the school at Serampore to Howrah.
• 1850 School was closed down for some reasons.
• 1893 Fr Medlycott, appointed at Howrah, was very keen set up a school. The Church being too large for its small congregation, it was decided that a part of its sanctuary be partitioned for the school.
• 1894 Some Irish Christian Brothers revived the old school of St Aloysius.
• 1911 Fr De Wacchter reopened St Aloysius on the roof of the Church as St Aloysius Orphanage & Day School with boarding facilities. The school and boarding were set up to cater to the poor Catholics and orphan Anglo-Indians and children of other faiths, irrespective of caste, creed or community. Under various Headmasters and Parish Priests the school flourished as an early educational institution. At this time, there was another free school, St Francis Xavier’s Poor School, for Catholic day scholars on the same premises.
• 1946 Fr Peter Gomes sj, Parish Priest, amalgamated the two schools and constructed a permanent building with wide class rooms, hall and presbytery.
• 1950 August 15, Archbishop Ferdinand Perier sj laid the foundation stone and the scholastic year began in the new building. The students were prepared for Secondary Modern School Examination.
• 1974 Under the guidance of Fr Michael Bhaju the school was affiliated to the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination (ICSE), New Delhi.
• 1976 First batch of students sent up for ICSE exams.
• 1992 Orphanage and Boarding shifted to Kharagpur for better facilities.

ST. ALOYSIUS GONZAGA

• 1568 March 6, St Aloysius Gonzaga, Patron of the School, was born in Italy to a princely family. He grew up in royal courts and army camps. His father wanted him to be a military hero. At the age of 8 he was sent to spend two years at the court in Florence to learn customs of the princes but his thoughts were absorbed in spiritual matters. He fasted, prayed, and sought solitude. He is said to have taken a private vow of chastity at the age of 9. He abdicated his title in favour of his elder brother and became a religious. This made his father furious.
  
  After reading a book about Jesuit missionaries in India, he wanted to be a missionary so became a member of the Society of Jesus. He started practice by giving catechism classes to the poor children, fasting three days a week and practicing austerities.
  
  During the great famine and pestilence in Rome he tended the sick. Thus he too fell ill and succumbed while nursing the sick on 21 June 1591 at the age of 23.
  
  Writing to his mother he told her not to worry because he would soon be in the Land of the Living.
  
  St Aloysius is shown as a young man wearing a black cassock and white rochet or as a page. His attributes are a lily, referring to innocence; a cross, referring to piety and sacrifice; a skull referring to his early death and a rosary, referring to his devotion to the Virgin Mary. He is the protector and patron of youth and young students. Saint Aloysius' Feast Day is celebrated on June 21, the day of his death.