This reminiscent moment is so enthralling as I share with one and all, the time – honoured heritage of our illustrious congregation, the Franciscan Sisters of Immaculate Heart of Mary Congregation, the first indigenous Women’s Religious Congregation, in the continent of Asia, founded in Pondicherry on the 16th of October 1844, by the Servant of God Louis Savinien Dupuis. We relish the legacy of incorporating Infant Jesus Province, Madurai and pledge allegiance to it with a profound sense of admiration. We stay beholden to our Founder, who as the soul and substance of our congregation exemplifies the edict “They only deserve a monument who do not need one; that is who have raised themselves a monument in the minds and memories of men.” We idolize his conviction in the watchword “Education can be the only means of access to effectuate a change in the society.” We stand over-awed at the ineffable contribution of our Patriarch, whose faith was deep-rooted in empowering women through education, to build families on the foundation of piety and morality. With a great devotion attuned in the depth of the heart, the sisters of FIHM cluster, share the same ideal in manifesting it in the acts of service in numerous capacities and thus inflame all the institutions that ensemble the FIHM entity, to occupy pride of places and transcend horizons by virtue of imparting value-based and quality education. The steering stewardship of our torch bearers, instill in us the abstraction that “Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is the triumph of enthusiasm.” With grace as the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul, the flagships of our congregation impersonate our Patriarch by offering the pupils, a world of fresh opportunities, wherein they evolve to be leadership embodied and responsibility personified in upholding tolerance, kinship, fraternity and fairplay. We have plenty to cheer about our emissaries of our congregation, who cater to a wide variety of parameters with the harmony of thought, word and deed, by enshrining the propelling ideal, ‘Dream more than others think is practical, make excellence not a one –time event but a habit, all with readiness for responsibility.’
