Santhpur Mission was inougrated by Late Bishop Basil D’Souza on June 17th June 1987. Fr Apolinenaris Crasta was appointed as the Director. 8 acre land was bought a small house was built for the Priests. Then started to contact the neighboring villages and people, the first three villages contacted were Borgi, Chatnal and Laxminagar.
To help Santpur Mission, the SRA sisters namely Claris, Nathalia, Ezilda arrived Santhpur on June 9 1088. Later on Dec 9, sisters started a small dispensary and tailoring classes for the poor girls of Santhpur town. On 18 April 1989 Priests temporary Residence SHANTHI NILAYA was inaugurated.
With the help of the sisters the faith formation extended to 10 villages eventually gave birth to Ujini Mission with 6 villages in the year 2000.
By seeing the economic conditions of women, it was decided to start the Self-Help Groups at Chatnal, Borgi, Laxminagar and Manigempur etc. Along with faith formation work in Villages, the women, children and elders of all faiths were given the awareness on Basic education, Awareness on Health, Climate and government facilities were also given. It was the felt need of people at Santhpur to have a good school. In the beginning around year 2000, a small study home was opened for the poor students who were in turn going to neighbouring GOVT schools. Then Fr Daniel D’souza with all earnestness started HOLY CROSS (KANNADA) PRIMARY SCHOOL in the year 2005 with few children. Same time sisters started SRA English medium Kindergarten school. Fr Daniel also started PU college (ARTS) in the year 2008 with 7 students.
In the memory of 25 years of service in the field of faith formation Fr Sunil Andrade built new church in the campus of Shanthi Nilaya.
AT PRESENT we have
Various programs held in the Centre:
All these go on to show that santhpur mission is a cradle of Christian faith and it has great potential to carry out evangelization work to its full potential in the days to come.
The Mission Directors served the center (chronologically):
| Year | Directors |
| 1987-94 | Fr Apolinearis Crasta |
| 1994-98 | Fr Peter Aranha |
| 1998-2000 | Fr Harold Pereira |
| 2000-2003 | Fr Thomas DSouza |
| 2003-11 | Fr Daniel DSouza |
| 20011-13 | Fr Sunil Andrade |
| 2013 till date | Fr Roque DSouza |
“God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply” — Hudson Taylor
Invited by Late Bishop Basil D’Souza (Bishop of Mangalore) SRA Congregation under the leadership of late Sr. Aquilina SRA who was then provincial of Mangalore, accepted the invitation and sent Sr.Renny, Sr. Suchitha in 1986 to stay in Bhalki. Thereafter decided to serve this mission and on 9th July 1988 the sisters Sr.Clarice, Sr. Ezilda, Sr. Nathalina and Sr. Nescitacame to santhpur as pioneers and began their collaboration at Santhpur Mission. The beginning years were not so easy but with the help of the Director Fr. Apolinaris , the sisters managed to stay in a small room at Shanti Nilaya. They rented a room to run the Dispensary and thus treated the patients in Santhpur town. After purchasing the site built a small room and began to provide tailoring classes for women and girls and Healing ministry was started through Dispensary.
The purpose of our mission was:
Initial stages of the mission were very hard. There were no transport facilities. The pioneers had to visit the villages either by walk or cycling. They used to stay in the villages overnight, gathering the children and the faithful, teaching them Catechism and initial prayers of the Catholic Church. Water scarcity was an added problem Language and culture was new. There was no acceptance from the high caste lingayath and other denominations. The sisters were going to the faith formation villages along with the priests to Chatnal, Laxminagar, Borgi, Ujini, Sunkanal, Gudpalli, Nagur M, Nagur N, Manigampur New and old, Kandugol, Maharajwadi, Santhpur, and Kashampur were contacted through the Catechists. The distance from Santhpur Centre to these villages is around 25-30 kms. Lots of developmental, Self Help Groups, Bala Jyothi Program, Sponsorship Program have been carried out by our Sisters. We remain ever grateful to all the Pioneers, Superiors who were also Local co-ordinators of ORBIT Sr Daphne, Sr.Rajani , Sr Joel, Sr Shirley, Sr Blasie, Sr Saroj as well as other Sisters who toiled day and night to make this mission a vibrant one.
“Love is the root of missions; sacrifice is the fruit of missions” — Roderick Davis
As the number of villages increased , it was good to have Ujini as the sub-centre of Santhpur in 2000. Though it was a separate Centre, the sisters from Santhpur reached out to Ujini also.. Later in 2003 the Premanjali Convent (SRA Congregation) was started at Ujini and they began to look after the spiritual and developmental activities of the faithful. Along with the faith formation and other activities the people were instructed regarding health and hygiene. They were also taught Natural Family Planning, preventive measures to take care of the diseases.
In 2003, Maria Kripa girls home was started to educate to the physically challenged and poor girls who are deprived of education. Sr Clarice, Sr Prashanthi, Sr Benita, Sr Laurentia, Sr Doreen, Sr Reema, Sr Sangeetha, Sr Rekha, Sr Secunda helps people to recover from their illness. The sick had great faith in the sisters more than the medicine they preserved.
In 2005 mobile clinic was begun in order to extend health care facilities to people in the distant villages. In 2005 The Holy Cross Primary School was started at the Parish. And Sr. Sumitha SRA 1st Headmistress (2006-2008), then Sr Marissa SRA (2008-2015) and at Present Sr. Saritha SRA from (2015 -) serve as Headmistress in this Parish School.
On March 25th 2006 Deepalaya vocational training center was started and the 1st Co coordinator Sr Joel did her best to give technical education to the physically challenged & the youth of the locality. The Bharat Samaj Sevak courses are followed in the centre. Residence and day scholars come for Computer learning and tailoring education. There are 150 students learning at present. There are 110 children under Child Sponsorship and 16 Self Help Groups are run under this Centre. 2 Children’s groups are functioning. Sr. Rajani also took up skill development training for over 600 youth.
In 2005, Maria Nursery and in 2010 Deepalaya Primary School started through the initiative of Sr. Joel the Correspondent, in order to give value education to the local children. Sr Divya SRA was the 1st Headmistress (2009 – 2013) followed by Sr. Deepa SRA (2013 – ). In 2015-16 we started CBSE syllabus in the School. At present there are 440 students in our campus.
On Successive Superiors were:
Sr. Clarice – 1988-1994 ; Sr. Rennie – 1994-1997; Sr. Reema – 1997-2000 & 2004-2007
Sr. Doreen – 2000-2003; Sr. Priya – 2003-2004; Sr . Joel – 2007- 2010
Sr. Shirley – 2010 – 2013; Sr. Kavitha – 2013 – 2016. We thank all the Superiors and the sisters for their dedicated service.
At present all the activities are functioning well. All the 7 sisters Srs Rajani, Saritha, Deepa, Sangeetha, all are involved in the faith formation activities. It is a matter of joy that the sisters are able to reach out to many people through the various apostolates.
“If you take missions out of the Bible, you won’t have anything left but the covers”— Nina Gunter
Dhupat mahagaon, Santhpur centre
The Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions (RNDM) responded to the call of Bishop and began this Mission on 15th June 2012. They stayed in a village chapel of New- Manigempur for the last 7 years. The mission started under the leadership of Sr. Stephanie (superior), sr. Jacintha and Sr. Dominica After a year Sr. Flavy led the community for two years. At present, Sr. Oliva has taken up as community animator.
The purpose of the mission was to meet the spiritual, social and educational needs of the people here. They take care of three villages of Santhpur mission centre namely Dhupat mahagaon, New Manigempur and old Manigempur. These villages are 16 km away from the santhpur mission centre. They stay in New Manigempur village chapel and meet the needs of the people of these villages. They focus mainly on faith formation activities, social development of people as well as educational needs of the children here. They go to, government school, boys and girls hostel everyday and teach the children as education is the need of the people here.
Sisters focus on family visits, listen to their struggles and sorrows and able to direct them in the right way. They visit all the families including people of other religions. Here people approach with different problems such as alcohol, health and job etc. In the faith formation villages they concentrate on catechism and family prayers. Children too are interested to join Missionary childhood association and attend faith formation camps etc.
They also have six self help groups in these villages and most of our Christian women are members in these SHG which belongs to ORBIT and help women to stand on their own feet. Here, though people are very much concerned about priests and sisters yet parents do not take care of their own children. As the parents are uneducated, they do not bother about their children’s studies.
There is also no commitment and right direction in youths. They want to be educated but seem to have no aim in their life.
People’s faith is very shallow. A lot need to be done to help people grow in faith.
Sub – Centres:
1. Maria Kripalaya – Chetnal C 95 F 15 Cat. 0
2. Krista Prabhalaya – Borgi C 80 F 14 Cat. 0
3. St. Joseph – Lakshmi Nagar C 40 F 7 Cat. 0
4. Yesu Kripalaya – Kandugol C 19 F 14 Cat. 3
5. St. Ann’s Chapel – Maharajwadi C 19 F 4 Cat. 0
6. Sacred Heart Chapel – Dupath Mahagaon C 39 F 9 Cat. 1
7. Holy Rosary – New Manigampur C 76 F 6 Cat. 0
8. Nitya Sahaya Matha – Old Manigampur C 12 F 61 Cat. 0
9. Arogya Matha – Mudol (B) F 5 C 31 Cat. 10
10.Holy Family Chapel – Nagur (N) F 8 C 30 Cat. 10
Institutions:
1. Holy Cross Pre – Pry. School, Santhpur
2. Holy Cross Hr. Pry. School, Santhpur (English Medium)
H.M.: Sr. Saritha SRA 7899867494
3. Holy Cross High School, Santhpur (English Medium)
H.M.: Sr. Saritha SRA 7899867494
4. Holy Cross PU College
Principal : Fr. David 8861408025
5. Holy Cross Bala Sadana (Hostel)
Manager : Fr. David 8861408025
Convents: 1. Missionary Sisters Of The Queen Of The Apostles (SRA)
Maria Kripa Convent (1988)
Santhpur P.O. 585421
Aurad, Bidar Tel. 08485-287648
Superior: Sr. Sangeetha D’Souza SRA 8277293737
Institutions:
1. Maria Kripa Dispensary (1988)
In-charge: Sr. Sangeetha D’Souza SRA 8277293737
2. Maria Kripa Boarding House (2006)
In-charge: Sr. Sangeetha D’Souza SRA 8277293737
3. Deepalaya Vocational Centre (2006)
In-charge: Sr. Rajani Varghese SRA 9901329220
4. Deepalaya School (2010)
H.M: Sr. Deepa Pinto SRA 7026394541/ 874720549
Sisters of Our Lady Of The Missions (RNDM)
Euphrasie Nilaya Convent (2012)
New Manigempur
Dupath Mahagaon Post
Aurad, Bidar Dt. 585 431
Superior: Sr. Dominica RNDM 9008364355
Holy Cross Church, Santpur F 140 C 713 Cat. 125 Shanti Nilaya, Santhpur P.O. Aurad , Bidar Dist. 585422 Director: Fr. David 8861408025 Asst. Director: Fr Melvin Pinto MSIJ 9741147522
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