Blessed Kuriakose Elias Chavara (1805-1871)

Blessed Kuriakose Elias Chavara (1805-1871) was a great visionary and pioneer who left his footprints in the fields of education, social reform, media, culture and religious formation. To this day he inspires the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (C.M.I) congregation and all their institutions to continue with his yeomen services.

It was in 1831 that he founded the C.M.I., India 's first indigenous religious congregation for men, in cooperation with Fr. Thomas Palackal and Fr. Thomas Porukara, which made great strides in the spiritual renovation of the Church of Kerala .

Under the leadership of Blessed Kuriakose Elias Chavara the first Catholic Sanskrit School in 1946, seminaries for the education and formation of the clergy, a publishing house, a home for the dying and the destitute and schools for general education were established. His sincere efforts ensured that people from all walks of life, especially women and the lower caste, had access to higher education.

Today Christ PU College - Evening stands as an inspired testimonial of his dream of educating the youth of India .