The Bombay Jesuits

Posted By : Ashley D'souza

Francis Xavier, by far the most illustrious Jesuit to walk on Indian shores reached Bassein (north of Mumbai) in the year 1549. He was certainly not among the first missionaries to reach these parts. The Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians were already here. But with the coming of Xavier and the Jesuits there began a flurry of missionary activity in these lands. During the second half of the 16th century the Jesuits built an oratory on a hill in Bandra (now Mount Mary’s). 

They also built churches in Sandor (1567), Papdy (1574), Manickpur (1605), and various other places. From Bassein the Jesuits moved southwards to Thana, Pokhran, Powai, and Kondivita. Much of their time spent in these places was devoted to religious instruction, administering the Sacraments, and education in the arts & languages. The arrival of the Jesuits ushered in a religious and social revolution of sorts, the kind scarcely seen before in these parts.

The modern history of the Jesuits in Western India began in Bombay in 1854. Bishop Anastasias Hartmann OFM Cap., Vicar Apostolic of Bombay, invited the Jesuits to Bombay. In response to his request, in 1854, the German Jesuit Province (the Swiss and some Austrians also belonged to the German Province at that time) was entrusted with the new Vicariate of Bombay-Poona, and in 1858 with the large territory of the ‘Bombay Mission’ which extended from Quetta to Hubli.

Some of the early educational institutions started by the Jesuits in Bombay were St. Stanislaus High School (1863), St. Mary’s High School (1865) and St. Xavier’s High School (1869). The climax of their efforts was the starting of St. Xavier’s College, Bombay (1869), a prestigious institute of higher learning till this day. In addition to their educational efforts, they looked after parishes in railway centres and military cantonments.

After being designated as a Vice Province for some time, Bombay finally became a full-fledged Jesuit Province on 12 May 1956. Fr Aloysius Coyne was named the first Provincial of the Bombay Province.