House of Bengaluru


 

In 1967 the Society of St Paul acquired a large piece of land at Nagasandra in the outskirts of Bangalore (now known as Bengaluru). In the evening of 24 December 1968 Fr Gabriel Colasanto and Br Basil Chennamkulam started the community of Bangalore, with the celebration of Holy Mass in a small garage. They began living and working there with neither electricity nor water facility, and started cultivating the vast field. In April 1969 Archbishop Lourduswami of Bangalore broke the soil for our first building there, and the construction began. The building was completed in 1969 itself, and a small press began functioning there. Fr Gabriel Colasanto was the first superior of the community of Bangalore. In February 1972 he left India definitively and returned to Italy. 

The Novitiate was shifted from Allahabad to Bangalore and a group of 13 novices began the canonical year of Novitiate on 29 June 1970. They made their First Profession on 30 June 1971. Fr Stephen Pullan was the first Novice Master in Bangalore. 

When Fr Luigi Zanoni, Vicar General, visited Bangalore in 1971 he found the community active and happy; as a sign of appreciation of the work done, he gifted the community with a tractor and accessories for working in the large field. In 1972 Fr Gabriel returned to Italy on the advice of his doctor. The same year the first batch of 18 aspirants joined the community of Bangalore. Thus in 1972 the SSP community in Bangalore became full-fledged, with five Brothers, four Priests and a group of Aspirants. 

The press used to do a good deal of printing for National Biblical Catechetical Liturgical Centre (NBCLC), Theological Publications India (TPI) and Asian Trading Corporation (ATC). Those days each house was financially independent and self-supporting and managed its own apostolate. In 1975 the community started printing and publishing books for St Paul Publications.

In 1986 Fr Paul Vechoor, the Provincial, appointed Fr George Kaitholil of the Allahabad community to raise funds to build a separate novitiate house in Bangalore. He visited Italy, Germany and Austria and raised adequate funds with which the novitiate house, with a garden in front of it, was built and a fairly good cattle shed was constructed in the premises of the Bangalore house. The new Novitiate House was blessed in 1987, and the novitiate was shifted from the local house building to the new building on 30 May 1987. 

At present Bangalore is a formation house of aspirants (first three years), and temporary professed members doing college studies in ST PAULS College, Bengaluru. It is also an apostolate house that houses the Southern warehouse of the Publications (blessed on 28 November 2009 by Very Rev. Fr Silvio Sassi, Superior General) and the editorial office of our Kannada language publications.

ST PAULS College, affiliated to the University of Bangalore is located in this community. The college began in 2017 has been steadily growing from strength to strenth. It offers courses in Arts, Science and Commerce, both Graduate and Post-graduate courses.

The Catholic community of Chokkasandra, close to our Bangalore house, was organised by the Paulines, and the Archdiocese built a small church and named it St Pauls Church. One and a half acres of land was gifted by the community of Bangalore to the Archdiocese of Bangalore for the nascent parish. Later it was made a parish and the diocesan priests were in charge. In 2010 the Paulines took up St Pauls Parish and a Pauline priest was appointed Parish Priest.


Bengaluru
Location Bengaluru
Address

Society of St Paul
E -1 Nelagadaranahalli,
8th Mile, Tumkur Road, Nagasandra P.O.
Bengaluru - 560 073

Phone +91-80-2839 5962, 2839 0067
Email [email protected]


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