History

St. Benedict’s College, located in Kotahena, Colombo 13, Sri Lanka, is one of the country’s oldest Catholic schools, with a history that spans over 150 years. Its foundation can be traced back to the efforts of the De La Salle Brothers, a Roman Catholic religious teaching order founded by Saint Jean-Baptiste de La Salle in France. The school has played a significant role in the educational landscape of Sri Lanka, contributing to both academic and extracurricular spheres.

The origins of St. Benedict’s College is inspired by the lives of three men who lived centuries ago and now are among the leading saints of the Catholic Church. They are St. Benedict, St. Sylvester Guzzolini, and St. John Baptist De Lasalle.

St. Benedict is believed to have lived from 480-547 AD. He was born to a distinguished family from Norcia in Central Italy. He was sent to Rome for his early education but when still young embarked upon the monastic life. This led to Benedict embracing a new set of values and a new conception of what was necessary to live life at its best. Eventually, accompanied by some monks on the summit of Monte Cassino, probably around 525 A.D., he founded his famous monastery, which stands today as the mother house of the whole Benedictine Confederation. In a time of turmoil, when the church was infected with heresies, St. Benedict and his Order illuminated Europe with a disciplined and moderate message that led to the Benedictine family becoming one of the oldest and influential orders in the Church.

The second individual who inspired the creation of St. Benedict’s College is St. Sylvester Guzzolini, the founder of the Sylvestrine Congregation who was born of rich parentage at Osimo, Italy, in 1177. His father enrolled him in the famous university of Bologna to pursue the study of law. But there was another corpus of laws and logic that captivated his heart: “If any want to be my followers, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me” (Matt 16:24). So abandoning the pursuit of jurisprudence, he enrolled himself in the theological curriculum. He withdrew into the woods, accepted the rule of St. Benedict and embraced monastic life. Disciples soon began to flock to him and thus sprang up a monastic congregation of the Order of St. Benedict. It was these Sylvestro Benedictine monks that First came to Sri Lanka in 1848 under the leadership of Msgr. Joseph Maria Brave, OSB.

There was at this time in Ceylon the need for education in the English language. The Colebrook Reforms saw the reorganization of popular education in the island and this led to Catholics especially clamouring over English education. In May 1839, the first English school was built with a meagre donation from the Governor and contributions of the people. The Roman Catholic Seminary (the school that was destined to become St. Benedict’s College) was thus declared open at Wolfendhal Street by its Patron, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Vincente de Rosairo, Vicar Apostolic of Colombo. The Rev. Fathers Sebastian Pereira, Caetano Antonio, Caetano Rosairo, Jose Pereira and Mr. V. M. Vanderstraaten were its vice-patrons. A school committee of 14 was chosen to look after its interests. J.P. Misso was President of the committee and J. Sansoni its Vice President; S. C. De Heer was Secretary and J. Wright the Treasurer. The school’s first principal was an Irishman, M. Lennon, who was assisted by Don Domingo (later Mohandiram Wijesinghe) and J. Andriesz as first and second assistants, respectively. For quite a long time the Seminary had just three teachers.

The Seminary numbered 80 students, of whom 68 were Roman Catholics, 11 belonging to other Christian denominations, and one Muslim. The curriculum comprised of English language, mathematics, history, history, geography and the additional languages of Greek, Latin and Sinhala.

The school authorities had also stated in their Prospectus that “the tenets of the Roman Catholic Faith are strictly inculcated on pupils professing that faith, but no interference takes place with the religious education for those of other denominations. “Now, at long last, the Catholics could be proud of a well-organized English school in Colombo. All the mission schools were partly free-levying and partly supported by mission funds. Attendance at the Roman Catholic Seminary increased to 144 in 1843, and to 152 in 1845. The Governor’s Blue Books named the school in different ways. At first it was called the Roman Catholic Missionary Society Seminary in Colombo (1845 to 1849); thereafter it was called the Cottanchina School (1850 to 1853); and it was again renamed the Seminary at Cottanchina (1854 to 1859). By 1859, the twentieth year of its existence, the school continue to be directly by three teachers, and the pupils had increased to 211. The historical record evidences that the school’s popularity and educational standards were outstanding.