St. Josephs School

St. Josephs School About Us

In 1830, a free school was established for the Goan community in Mr. Cooper's residence in 69 Bowbazar Street. This was later taken over by the Calcutta Brothers who built a single building in the present location of the school. Edmund Ignatius Rice is the founder of Congregation of Christian Brothers. In 1842, Vicar Apostolic Monsignor Carew of Calcutta was keenly aware of the increasing number of British and European children made fatherless by disease or battle. He saw the need for congregations of Nuns and Brothers to care for and teach these poor children who were termed 'war orphans'. His immediate choice was the Loreto Sisters and the Irish Christian Brothers. The founding of the school was done about forty years earlier, by a Waterford businessman, Edmund Rice , who had just lost his wife. However, while the Irish nuns arrived in India in 1844 and took up residence at Middleton Row, the Christian Brothers were unable to spare any Brothers for the Indian Mission. As an alternative, the Brothers offered to train men who would form the nucleus of the new Congregation in India. Accordingly, in September 1847, two young men, Br. Francis Fitzpatrick and his cousin, Br. Alphonsus Tolan, having completed their short spell of training in Ireland, began their long and wearisome voyage around the Cape of Good Hope to Calcutta, arriving on 15 February 1848. They immediately set up the new community of the Calcutta Brothers in the Cathedral compound, Murghihata. Br. Francis took charge of the orphanage at Murghihata while Br. Alphonsus travelled each day to look after the Boys' Free School in Bow Bazar. The little Congregation grew slowly but received a setback when both Vicar Apostolic Carew and Br. Francis died in 1855. It was only in January 1890, that the Irish Christian Brothers were able to set up their mission on a firm footing when five Brothers (Vincent Casey, Fabian Kenneally, Edward Aherne and Ambrose Flynn) came to Calcutta from Ireland at the request of Pope Leo XII. Br. Casey was appointed Provincial Visitor and the amalgamation of the four Irish Christian Brothers and sixteen Calcutta Brothers took place. The brothers were fond of little children and often spent large amounts of time teaching them.