St. Joseph’s Convent, Bandra
1863 to 2019 and beyond ….
The School that has stayed trendy and traditional for more than 150 Years
BG (Before Google) and AG (After Google), as measures of time, replaced BC and AD, but to us Alumnae of St. Joseph’s Convent, time stands still when we remember SJC. The majestic beauty of the red-brick building… The sweeping circular driveway lined with Ashoka trees… The welcoming haven of Our Lady’s Grotto, surrounded by banks of colourful foliage… Flights of wooden staircase and long hallways down which we raced to large, high ceilinged classrooms… And our favourite retreat – the Chapel, with sunlight streaming through stained glass… It was our sanctum, yet we did enter wearing our berets at a stylishly rakish angle.
Indeed, for 150 years, SJC has churned out generations of poised, progressive, self-assured young women who have excelled in various fields across the globe … and, accord their success to an SJC foundation of value-based, all round, academic excellence.
At this historic juncture, we pause and reflect on the 4 Daughters of the Cross sisters who travelled from Liege, Belgium, on the invitation of the Vicar Apostolic of Bombay, and arrived here in 1863. They began their work in Bandora (Bandra) by opening a day school for the village children. Although a cholera epidemic forced the closure of the school, it was re-opened in 1867, with the arrival of the remarkable Sr. Theodorine. In 1877, the Sisters bought the land on which the convent stands today.
The heat and the dust of India, the plague and pestilence which took the lives of very young nuns, did not deter the intrepid band. They kept coming in God’s mission, and the school evolved into a formidable educational institution that advocated the cause of the Girl Child long before it became a fashionable word.