St. Joseph’s Training College is owned by St. Joseph’s Monastery, of Carmelities of Mary Immaculate (CMI) Religious Congregation, St. Joseph’s Province, Thiruvananthapuram and is an integral part of the vast network of CMI Educational Institutions.

History of the CMI Congregation

The hillock of Mannanam was called Bes Rauma, the abode above, the heavenly Jerusalem, by the founding fathers, Malpan Thomas Porukara, Malpan Thomas Palackal and Blessed Chavara. On this hillock the foundation stone was laid on 11th May, 1831 for the first house of the first indigenous religious congregation in India, the Camelites of Mary Immaculate (C.M.I.). In the 19th century, when the modern age was ushering in, it was in Mannanam that the history of St. Thomas Christians of Malabar took a new shape and gigantic stride. Mannanam was not merely the birthplace of the first indigenous religious congregation it was also the birth place of many other things: the first indigenous seminary of the Malabar Church (1833), the first catholic Sanskrit School in Kerala (1846), the first catholic printing press in Kerala (1846), the first catholic English School in Kerala (1874), the first daily news paper in Malayalam: the Deepika ( 1887), and the first catholic monthly in Kerala: Karmelakusumam (1903).

CMI Educational Policy Statement

We, The Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, following the example of our Founder Blessed Kuriakose Elias Chavara, consider education an integral part of the human development for the fulfillment of one’s individual and social responsibilities.

Our educational endeavors aim at forming leaders who are intellectually competent, spiritually mature, morally upright, psychologically integrated, physically healthy, socially acceptable and God loving, who will champion the cause of justice, love, truth and peace and who are ever open to further growth. The secret of the success of our educational institution is a community of teachers who are committed to their vocation, professionally competent, morally upright, just and humane in dealing and who grow in the true vision of education.

We aspire towards creating a just and humane society where dignity of the human person is respected, where unjust social structures are challenged, where our cultural heritage of ahimsa, religious harmony and national integration are upheld, and where the poor and marginalised are specially taken care of. We aim at reaching out to the families, primarily of the students, to assist them in their needs, to share joys and sorrows and to help them experience love and freedom so that the students realize that our educational institution is an extension of their homes.

Our Institutions are open to all students irrespective of their caste and creed; they are accepted and cherished as they are; and helped to grow in their cultural, social and religious traditions. As they are privileged to be in our institutions, they will also have the right to get acquainted with the Person of Jesus Christ and His Gospel. The institutions being established by and for a minority community based on religion; they will have a special concern for the faith formation of the Christian youth.

Our institutions have to be open to society at large by making their re- sources available for the ongoing education and non-formal teaching. For the realization of these C.M.I. aims of education, we expect teachers, students and parents to share the vision and co-operate with us whole- heartedly.