Makkiyad, Kerala INDIA

St. Joseph’s Benedictine Monastery was established in the year 1962 in the hill district of Wayanad, on the north-eastern part of the State of Kerala, India, which lies at a height of about 700 and 2100 meters above sea level and is nestled among the mountains of the Western Ghats, one of the loveliest hill stations of Kerala State in India.

One of the loveliest hill stations of Kerala

St Joseph’s Benedictine Monastery was established in the year 1962 in the hill district of Wayanad, Kerala.

•Novitiate, philosophy faculty, coffee & pepper, retreat house
•Co-educational school,

with 580 students aged 4-16 and 30 staff.

In contributing to our vital work your donations will be used to pay for:

•Extension: $200,000*
•Hostel conversion $80,000
•Retreat hall $45,000
•Monastery waterproofing $10,000

All through history, Benedictine Monasteries have been known to be centres of spiritual enrichment and intellectual pursuit. With this in mind, we established in the year 1965, with the permission of the Holy See, our institute of philosophy for the philosophical training of our clerical students.

Due to constant request from other religious congregations and dioceses we opened our institute for clerical students from outside, and the result has been very positive. The institute offers graduate programme in philosophy which prepares the clerical students for their study of the bachelor of theology.

The course is for a period of three years with both Indian and Western philosophies as main subjects and English Literature and Psychology as subsidiary subjects. During their study at our institute, the students register also for a bachelor degree from a secular university as private students and obtain a degree by the time they finish their course in philosophy.

The students stay along with the monks in the same community, taking part in the main stream of the community. Since we aim at the holistic formation of the students, and not merely intellectual training, we provide the opportunities for exposure, pastoral ministry and various other co-curricular and extra-curricular activities.

St. Joseph's Institute of Philosophy

Taking cognizance of the non-availability of adequate educational facilities in and around the backward village of Makkiyad, the Benedictine Fathers decided to open a school. The project saw light on 1st June 1991. The school started with the Kindergarten section and went on growing year by year. No effort was spared to get it recognized by the State Education Department. We adopted the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) syllabus in 1996 for our school and the school presented the first batch of students for the All India Exams in March 2007.

Our school aims at providing the best atmosphere and facilities for the education of the children of the locality and around. The management takes every interest to see that an atmosphere conducive to the all-round human and intellectual formation of the students is maintained and fostered in the school campus. Courses and programmes are co-ordinated and conducted in such a way as to build up a strong civic sense in the students and to bring the best out of them. The students as well as the staff together with the management endeavour to acquire and to diffuse the light of divine wisdom all around, thus helping to make the world a better place to live in.

Holy Face School

Shantiniketan Benedictine Retreat Centre was constructed to meet the growing demands for retreats from the lay people. The monastery guest rooms were insufficient to provide facilities for the larger groups and so now the new centre has the facilities for 300 people to stay and make their retreat at a time. The constructions are still underway.

Shantiniketan Benedictine Retreat Centre