India South

Brief history of The Province

The flame of charity of which St. Magdalene of Canossa was ardent about embraced the southern states of India as the Province of Mary Immaculate was formed in the year 1988. In the year 2015, an offshoot of the Province took its form as a separate Delegation South – East India Delegation of St. Josephine Bakhita.

In the Province 213 sisters serve in the states of South Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Our 22 communities are geographically inserted into 10 Dioceses namely Alleppey, Bangalore, Chinglepet, Kochi, Kannur, Kollam, Kumbakonam, Neyyattinkara, Ootty and Trivandrum. We also have our presence in the Diocese of Thanjavur as an Extended Ministry from the community of Punavasal.

All the branches of Charity of the Canossian Family have been well established in the Province through the apostolic fervor, insights and sacrifices of our pioneers who set their foot on the Indian soil for the first time in the Diocese of Kochi, Kerala. The Province takes care to hand over the same spirit and charism over the past 32 years of the formation of the province.

Through our Education Ministry spread out in all three states, we cater to 19,317 students of which 6061(31%) are Catholics. We have 82 sisters and 614 teaching staff making the Education Ministry a platform for Evangelization to the students and their families.

Pastoral Health Care is extended to the sick through our Hospitals and dispensaries which are now open to the poorest and abandoned people through Palliative Care Centres, Home based health care, stroke rehabilitation, Psychiatric rehabilitation etc.

The Social Action Ministry of the province is reaching out to the peripheries through awareness programmes on human trafficking, counselling, slum intervention, disaster relief work etc.

Our sisters are actively involved in the accompaniment of the youth through our Youth Ministry, handholding with the respective parishes and Dioceses.

For the future of the Province the next generation Canossians are being formed, seven of them in the Novitiate and four of them in the Postulancy. We rely on the heavenly intercession of our dear Mother Foundress for the vitality and growth of the mission carried out in the Province.