early history of dnc

Welcome to DNC

A Home- you will never forget

A Walk into the Down Memory Lane

January 1937: Fr Rauw SJ, the then Superior of the Poona

Mission,received orders from the Jesuit Superior General, Fr

Ledochowski, to begin Theology classes in Poona.

•11 June 1937: De Nobili College is born on the top floor of the Jesuit residence at St Vincent’s School, Camp.

• Fr Rauw is its first Rector and unofficial founder.

•Meanwhile the search for a suitable site for a new building continues.

3 September 1939: World War II breaks out. Eleven German-speaking Jesuits are interned.

These comprise German, Austrian, and Swiss nationals. Among them is Fr Josef Neuner whose name later gets inextricably linked with De Nobili College.

January 1941: Archbishop Henry Doering of Poona sells a plot of land at Ramwadi to the Jesuits. This is where DNC will receive its second birth. Plans for construction are now afoot.

January 1943: DNC faces a massive blow. The buildings are now completed and ready for occupation. But sadly, just then, the military takes over the DNC buildings and uses it as an ‘Educational Training Centre’ for the Southern Command.

The theologate thus continues at St Vincent’s School, Camp.

4 February 1948: The DNC buildings are returned to us by the military, and classes in Theology finally begin at the present location, with thirty five scholastics and four Professors.

•Classes in Theology began here in 1948 and Philosophy in 1952. Thomistic, or Scholastic Theology & Philosophy were the staple diet.

• Most classes (except for Natural Sciences, Canon Law and Moral Theology) were conducted in Latin .

men

Thousands of great men have

walked on this land and passed through this house…

De Nobilites have carved new paths and ventured into greater horizons to

make this world a better place ….

It’s our turn NOW