Our Legacy
The Congregation of Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI) is the first indigenous religious Congregation in India. Fr. Thomas Palackal, Fr. Thomas Porukara and St. Kuriakose Chavara of the Syro-Malabar Church of apostolic origin founded a religious house at Mannanam on 11 May 1831. On 8 December 1855, the religious Congregation was canonically approved and the first eleven fathers made their religious profession. St. Chavara, the only surviving founder, was appointed the first superior of the Congregation. The Congregation was granted pontifical exemption in 1967. In 1871, on January 3rd, Fr. Kuriakose Elias Chavara, after a short but painful illness, passed away at Koonammavu preserving his baptismal innocence unto death. His mortal remains were transferred from Koonammavu to Mannanam in 1889 and have been interred in St. Joseph’s Monastery church, Mannanam.
CMI IN THE PATH OF EDUCATION
CMI Congregation has a huge and wide network of various types of educational institutions. According to the latest statistics, we have 151 Kindergartens, 170 Lower Primary Schools, 150 Upper Primary Schools, 136 High Schools, 77 Higher Secondary Schools, 30 Arts, Science, Commerce and Education Colleges of varying sizes and enrolments, 6 Nursing Colleges/ Schools, 1 Polytechnic, 6 Industrial Training Centres, 2 Engineering Colleges, 1 Medical College and 1Deemed University. We have also entered into other forms and areas of education demanded by the special needs of our times, like training the handicapped, adult education and various types of non-formal education; today we run 12 institutions for the training of the differently challenged and have 55 non-formal education centres and 24 cultural or dialogue centres.
