FORMATION

The CMI Congregation was active from the very beginning in giving training to the clergy. Through their visits and preaching of retreats to all the parishes in Kerala, the founding fathers realized the exigency of holy, efficient and well-trained clergy to lead the Church. With that intention, a Major Seminary was started at the Mother House in Mannanam in the year 1833, that is, within two years of the starting of the first Monastery there. It was the main Seminary of that time for the whole of Kerala Church. There was a time when about 150 Seminarians were inmates there. This Seminary continued there till 1894.

Today, the CMI Congregation runs 6 Major Study Houses for the training of the leaders of the Church. One of them is in Namibia, Africa. The Pontifical Athenaeum in Bangalore, by name, Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram, gives training in Philosophy, Theology and Oriental Canon Law to students from 17 dioceses and 75 religious Congregations. The Congregation has also 11 Novitiates and 31 Minor Seminaries. There are 1300 young religious undergoing formation to be priests and missionaries.

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CMI Vision of Formation