In the year 1999,Very Rev. Mother. Daria and Rev.Sr. Dulsie, Principal, St.Joseph’s Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Tirupur took up the assignment of starting a college for Women in Tirupur very earnestly with the help of Well-wishers. The dream of instituting this College has come true with the concerned help granted by Thiru.K.Subbarayan, Former Member of the Parliament, Mr.Ponnuswamy, Emperor Knitting House and Mr.Govindaraj, Geethanjali Knitting Works in receiving permission from the Government of Tamilnadu. Thus St.Joseph’s College for Women had its humble beginning on 6th September, 2000. The College has now emerged as one of the leading institutions of education, proliferating higher values of edification and learning, with hopes and dreams to achieve the goal “Knowledge Purifies, Charity Enhances”.
The College has currently evolved to run 14 Undergraduate, three Post Graduate and two M.Phil., Programmes, one Ph.D. Programme and a team of committed Teaching staff and non-teaching staff. St.Joseph’s College has worked through years down the corridors of Time, shaping the lives of young women. It has endeavored not only to sharpen the educational skills but also to open the doors of opportunities for the young students by identifying and nurturing their various talents. It reflects a continuous journey beyond the threshold of mediocrity to ascend towards an explorative experience in quality education.
Rev.Fr.Joseph Louis Ravel is the Founder of the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of the Presentation of Mary. Born on 24th August 1824 at Valeren, France, in a family of landlords, Rev. Fr.Ravel grew up in an environment of profound mysticism and entered the Major Seminary of Foreign Missions. He was ordained as a Catholic Priest on 17th June 1848. Rev Fr.Ravel's compassion, unshakeable faith, nobility, and astuteness made him take up a missionary assignment with the M.E.P. Priests at Coimbatore, with Karumathampatti as its headquarters. To eradicate illiteracy, ignorance, intolerance and bias among the people, Fr.Ravel worked relentlessly categorizing himself with the people acquiring their idiom and civilization. A presbytery and a church at Wellington, the Church of Our Lady of Rosary at Karumathampatti are the fruits of his apostolic labour. Care for the sick, education of women and fighting the evils of castes were concerns close to his heart. These motivated him to begin the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of the Presentation of Mary in 1863. Savariammal, an uneducated village girl from Karumathampatti was the first postulant of this new congregation. Through her and many others like her Fr. Ravel succeeded in inculcating the great Law of Charity in the society. After 32 years of productive and altruistic service as a devoted servant of God this noble soul, commended his spirit in the hands of Our Lord on 31st January 1881, inspiring his followers: "To live as the living teaching of the great law of charity, which is the true foundation and beautiful summary of the Christian religion".
