Founder of The School
"The Venerable Servant of God, Maria Rafols, was born on 5th November 1781 in Villafranca del Panades (the Province of Barcelona in Spain). The Superior of a small group of women, which was recognized later on as a Congregation of Sisters of Charity of St. Anne, dedicating themselves in the Hospital of Our Lady of Grace of Zaragoza in the assistance of the sick, the poor and the orphans as also in the formation and government of the Congregation in its beginnings. With fortitude and the spirit of sacrifice she suffered many difficulties, including imprisonment and exile. On acknowledging her innocence, she returned back to the Hospital of Zaragoza where she was outstanding for her charity, total poverty and apostolic fervor. She died in the odour of sanctity on 30th August 1853".
The following are testimonies from the Decree of "The Heroic virtues" and the Historical Books of the Congregation. "In the exercise of charity, so great was the tenderness of
her heart, that the same sick people although bad and hard
to win over used to say to the Sisters, that she robbed their hearts and that she seemed to be their mother when she helped them" "Always available to help day and night, to anyone who needed help"
She served the sick suffering from every kind of pain "...the foundling, the insane, the unwed mothers, the venereal and contagious sicknesses, the whole of the sick humanity".
She welcomed the socially marginalized: the prostitutes, the convicts, and the abandoned children.
Open to all kinds of persons, needs and places, Maria Rafols neither looked at the faces nor surnames, inclinations nor groups while loving and serving. She was there where any type of misery would be, heeded a word and a gesture of welcome, service and love.
"Mother Maria Rafols personally risked her life more than once to save the life of some noble men who had fallen into the hands of the enemy"'. She came to know that several odeled prisoners had been condemned to death. In the company of another Sister, through many difficult situations and dangers, She arrived at the enemy's camp, and obtained pardon for the one who had been condemned and was on the point of being executed. She appeared before the French General who yielded to the pressure and request from thy servant of God."
ln the midst of bullets and great fighting she went to Torrero to ask the General who was besieging the city for provisions for the sick"
"In the persecutions in which she was a victim, (2 months in jail and 6 years in exile) she always remained serene and resigned and endowed with an admirable patience and meekness, without ever uttering any word of reproach against her persecutors..."
"The chosen sphere of the charity of Maria Rafols was the foundlings with all the disabilities, their helplessness, squalid conditions, misery and frightful mortality". Her figure remained for ever connected with the foundlings, the most forsaken and helpless of all beings in the whole Hospital."
She breathed her last on August 30, 1853 close to 72 years of age. For 49 years she was a Sister of Charity. The end came peacefully. She committed her soul to the God of Love for whom she had lived and given of herself unsparingly.
She was beatified by His Holiness John Paul II, in Rome on the 16th October 1994.
Today following the footsteps of our Founders, 2700 Sisters of Charity of St. Anne serve humanity with preference for the most poor and needy, a charity without frontiers'
The Congregation renders its service in all the five Continents.
- EUROPE: England, Lately, Spain, Russia
- AFRICA: Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Ivory Cost, Rwanda, Republic of Congo, Gabon.
- AMERICA: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Brazil, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama Peru, Venezuela
- ASIA: India, Macao, Philippines, Hong Kong, China
- PACIFIC: Australia, Papua New Guinea
Today the Sisters strive to become, day by day, women with a deep-rooted faith, simple and humble, hard working, generous and compassionate, loving those whom no one else will love, women who, keep commitments and are ready to take risks.
They continue in the knowledge that if the grain of wheat does not fall to the ground and die, it will not bear fruit; they continue in the knowledge that the cross is beautiful and the only guarantee of permanence.
The first sisters arrived from Spain in India in 1951 and today more than 400 Indian Sisters serve though who suffer the oppressed and the marginalized; educate the young, heal the sick excluding no one. Striving to respond to different needs as they arise, in different ways as called for, in the various states where they serve.
Their apostolic action in India covers:
Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Andaman, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
The History
Our Lady of Pillar Convent School is a private institution run by the sisters of charity of St. Anne, founded in the year of 2000 in Jodhpur.
The School is affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE, New Delhi).The school has approved facilities for the academic stream from Nursery, KG to XI. The academic year extends from April to March of the following year and is divided into two terms. The School has English as the media of instruction.
Though a catholic institution, it welcomes pupils of all caste and creeds and specially the most poor and needy. It aims at logical, holistic, creative modern and enjoyable development of the physical as well as mental abilities of the children. We are in the mission of educating the world because with Jesus we believe in the sanctity and dignity of every human life and education is the golden gate to the fullness of life which Jesus came to give us. Our task is a beautiful one "And to enable the pupils to have life and have it in abundance." Jn 10:10.
There is no greater and nobler mission than that of forming the rising generation. Here teachers are the channels where by the heritage of civilization-faith, culture, values is transmitted to the young whose ideas and way of life will determine the course of history in future making the persons capable of developing all their possibilities so that they do justice, brotherhood and peace.