About us

Our Congregation (Franciscan Sisters of St. Aloysius Gonzaga) was erected in the present Puducherry and Cuddalore Archdiocese on 4th October 1858 as a Diocesan Congregation.

Registered under the societies registration Act of Tamil Nadu, India.No.s-7/1973/21/of 1861

On 18th July 1886 it was aggregated to the third order of St. Francis of Assisi by His Holiness Pope Leo XIII.

It was elevated as Pontifical Congregation by His Holiness Pope John Paul II, on 4th October 1996 on the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi.

At present we have four Provinces. Shalom Province and Aloysius Province are in Tamil Nadu.

Michael Ansaldo Province in Andhra Pradesh and St. Aloysius Province in Myanmar.

We have 137 houses including Provincialate and Novitiate and 685 sisters. We are serving in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala in South, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh - Agra Dio., West Bengal- Asansol Dio., Rajasthan - Udaipur Dio. in North India, Myanmar in South-Asia, Italy, Austria, Germany in Europe. Our Generalate is in Puducherry.

General Information:

Our Charism is to show preferential love and give fuller life to the afflicted in our society especially to the oppressed poor, the abandoned women, the helpless children and the like, and thus to try our best to reveal in the church to all, the Christ who heals the afflicted.

Our Motto is “Good News to the Poor” (Lk 4:18). We aspire to carry out this motto in our life and ministry in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi and with the spirit of St. Aloysius Gonzaga.

Our Apostolate:

Evangelization: Proclamation of the Gospel is our fore most mission. There are fulltime evangelizers going place to place, teaching the Gospel values. In Myanmar Province all the sisters are involved in the church activities like teaching catechism, preparation for first Holy Communion, Holy Mass, Marriage, Conducting pious associations and so on.

Education: Our main focus is to enable the downtrodden people to stand-up for their rights through education. We are running Primary Schools, High Schools, Matric Schools, and Higher Secondary.

We also have given importance to the Technical Training and Higher Education. So we are running Teacher Training Institute, B.Ed. College and Arts and Science College. In all our Institutions first preference is given to orphans, poor and downtrodden. We are empowering women through our education.

Social Work : We are running Home for children, running women’s Hostels, Home for disabled, Home for aged, and Social Work Centers. Orphan children are adopted, educated and arranged marriages. Now there are more than 150 families. They are supported by the congregation. We also organize widows, and aged women, helping them to get stipend from the government.

Social Action : The aim of our social action is the integral development of persons in order to transform the unjust social structures. Our sisters who have completed their M.S.W. are working in the villages, visiting the people conducting awareness meetings, forming self help, youth groups, helping, motivating, organizing them to stand on their own feet and get the rights from the Government.

Most of our sisters in the Province of Michael Ansaldo Province Andhra are involved in these kinds of activities. Our sisters individually, as well as join with other groups and movements to work for the total liberation of the oppressed, dalits and the afflicted.

Health Ministry : We are running dispensaries in the villages. We see Christ in the sick people and serve them lovingly. We are mainly concentrating the health awareness programme by conducting various kinds of health camps.

Gonzaga Animation Centre was inaugurated on 4th October 2018, by Rev. Mother. A Mary Stella, Superior General (Residence), Sr. K. V. Rossa, Asst-General (Chapel), Sr. Josephine Mary Stella (Conference hall), Sr.Louisa (Dining hall) and blessed by most Rev. Dr. Antony Anandarayar - Arch Bishop of Puducherry & cuddalore.

This Centre is used for conducting retreats, meetings, seminar, prayers and other training programme.

Our Facilities

  • Comfortable Single and double rooms with attached bathrooms.

  • Big (200 people capacity) and small (50 people capacity) conference hall.

  • Chapel (200 people capacity), Dining Hall (150 people capacity), LCD projector.

  • 24x7 Electricity and water. Clean and purified mineral drinking water. Solar Hot water.

  • Meals (Breakfast, coffee, Lunch, Tea, Supper). Lot of space to walk in the campus.

  • Unpolluted clean environment. People who come to GAC could bring their own resource persons

  • If a resource person, a retreat preacher or an animator is required, contact the director of GAC.

  • Booking needs to done, well in advance. (at least 30 days ago).