About Us
Brief History Of St.Aloysius' College Galle
St. Aloysius’ College, Galle, Sri Lanka is situated on Mount Calvary, neighboring St. Mary’s Cathedral on one side and Sacred Heart Convent on the other. The College was established in1895 by Jesuit Missionaries and was named after the Jesuit Saint, Aloysius Gonzaga (born 9th March, 1568). Saint Aloysius is regarded as the’ Saint of Youth’ by the Catholic Church because of the heroic acts that he had performed when he was a young Jesuit, attending to plague victims in Rome, in1587.While rendering assistance to plague victims, young Aloysius died on 21st June1591 at the age of 23, when he himself contracted the disease. St. Aloysius’ College, Galle, is one of many schools named in his honour that exist around the world.
This school had been initially established as “St. Aloysius’ Mixed High School” on the initiative of Rev. Fr. Martin SJ, who headed the Belgian Jesuit Missionaries. When he was consecrated as the first Bishop of Galle, a new era dawned for the Institution. Rev. Fr. Cooreman SJ was appointed as the first “Director” of the school, which by then had 61 male students and 41 female students in attendance.
Though this was a mixed school from the beginning, in 1897 the Sacred Heart Convent was established as a separate school for female students.
During the period 1901-1905, Rev Frs. Cooreman, Murphy, Neut and Biezer did great service and as a result they were able to promote this Institution to ‘College status’. Further, due to the necessity of renovating the school, new buildings were established and the academic staff cadre was also expanded. The use of the designation “Rector”, for the head of the school, commenced in 1915, during the stewardship of Fr Oliver Ferron SJ.
Rev. Fr. Biezer created the school motto as “CERTA VIRILITER” with the English meaning of ‘strive manfully’ or ‘fight like a man’. Meanwhile, on the initiative of Rev Fr. Murphy, the school colours were changed to ‘ Green & Gold’, while a College Crest was also designed.
Changes in the School Management
The college had been managed by the Jesuit Priests from the very beginning without any state funds. There was no change in the management when it opted to become a state assisted school with the introduction of the free education system by the government. When the Government brought legislation for nationalization of schools in the Island in 1961- with exception only for a few schools that had not joined the free education system – the Jesuit Fathers opted to proceed as a non-fee levying private school. However finding funds to carry on becoming an insurmountable burden, they handed over the management of the school to the state in 1970.
Till about 1953, the medium of instruction was mainly English except in the Primary Section. Thereafter, Sinhala was gradually introduced as the medium of instruction in the upper school as well. By the time the first Buddhist Principal was appointed in the year 1971, the medium of instruction had been changed to Sinhala completely
History Of OBA - Colombo Branch
The Colombo Branch of the Old Boys’ Association (OBA) of St. Aloysius’ College, Galle, was founded in early 1935 by a group of Old Aloysians residing in Colombo. Following several meetings with the Parent Association and Jesuit priests, the first Annual General Meeting (AGM) was conducted on March 23, 1935, at the Catholic Home on Bailie Street, Colombo 2.
At this initial AGM, Dr. Marceline De Costa was elected as the first President, with Mr. N.U. Jayawardena and Mr. P.D. Henry serving as Secretary and Treasurer, respectively. Dr. De Costa led the Colombo Branch until 1945, after which Rev. Fr. Terrance de Silva S.J. took over as President until 1950. Initially, the branch held its committee meetings semi-annually, and AGMs were not consistently conducted annually until 1980.
