This point is brought in here to highlight that the early fathers who built the Church organization in Bangalore were all French. We thus have several names familiar to us -  Saint Germain, Vissac and Froger – all names of priests who worked with St. Josephs Boys School who were all French. Another French priest who served Bangalore with immense dedication was Father Servanton, the Parish priest at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral for fifty years from 1898 till his death in 1948 in whose honour the circle outside St. Germains is named. It was during his time that the small church first built in 1856 was replaced with the magnificient granite structure that now stands there as the Cathedral for the Bangalore Archdiocese.

Since 1700, the main church organization in southern India was the Carnatic Church with it’s headquarters in Pondicherry. The Jesuits were largely in-charge of the Church affairs at Pondicherry till 1773 and thereafter, the French MEP were handed over the control of the Carnatic Church in 1776. In 1836, Pondicherry was formally erected as a Apostolic Vicariate. However, since the area under its control was already large and unwieldy, in 1845 the Pondicherry Vicariate was further broken into three missions – Pondicherry, Mysore and Coimbatore. However, Mysore was only the title and Bangalore was the actual location of the Mission. 

The Mysore Mission was again entrusted to the Fathers of the Missions Etrangeres de Paris and Rev. Fr. Etienne Louis Charbonnaux was the first Administrator. The Mysore mission was then erected into a Vicariate Apostolic in 1850 and Msgr Charbonnaux appointed the de facto Bishop. 

Even today, if one goes to St Peter’s Pontifical Seminary at Malleshwaram, Bangalore, you will find the French Fathers of the MEP  living here, still carrying on the work which they started over 130 years ago. This is an amazing spirit of selfless dedication for the cause of learning and development. You can talk to Rev Fr Legrand and the other fathers and they will be extremely proud to refresh you memory about their Missions.