By Matters India Reporter

Nagpur: St Charles Major Seminary that began in the central Indian city of Nagpur with one student and a teacher in a bullock cart 169 years ago has a new rector.

Dominican Father Aquin Noronha, a former missionary to South Africa, has been elected to lead the seminary that currently trains priests for 42 dioceses in central and northern Indian dioceses.

Father Noronha will assume office in June when the seminary begins its new academic year.

Presently, Father Noronha serves as the parish priest of St Dominic Church, Ashoknagar, Mangaluru. He was the prior of Mt. Saint Dominic Church, Ashoknagar until recently.

The new rector is a lecturer in church history at St Charles Seminary, Nagpur, as well as St Joseph’s Major Seminary, Jeppu, Mangaluru. He has a licentiate degree in this subject from Santa Croche in Rome.

Father Noronha worked as missionary in South Africa for five years.

A good teacher, preacher, musician and singer, Father Noronha hails from Shankerpura (Pangla) in Mangaluru. He comes from a family of six children.

St Charles Seminary is an inter-diocesan seminary that belongs to the Archdiocese of Nagpur and under the care of the Dominican priests of India. It was in 1959 that the Irish Dominicans came to India to take charge of the seminary built by Archbishop Eugene D’Souza, the then Archbishop of Nagpur.

The seminary has formed more than thousand priests and 16 bishops and archbishops during its long turbulent history.

It has now 169 resident and 117 extern students, who come from 42 dioceses and 11 religious congregations.

The seminary is affiliated to the Pontifical University of St. Thomas, (Angelicum) Rome. Students with 60 percent marks in all theology subjects can qualify to present themselves for the Bachelor of Theology Examination and receive the degree from the Angelicum.

The seminary has a colorful history of ups and downs.

Historians have traced the origin of the seminary to 1851 with one seminarian and a rector. The classes were conducted in a bullock-cart as no seminary building existed then.

Fransalian Father Maurice Domenge is the first known seminarian. He came to India as a deacon in 1851. He traveled from Yanoon (on the Godavary) to Jaulnah (now Jalna) in a bullock-cart with Fransalian Bishop Sébastin-Théophille Neyret. The journey took many months.

Later the seminarians were housed in one of the rooms of the presbytery in Kamptee, where the rector was also the military chaplain. Later, some seminarians were brought to Nagpur, while others went to Jabalpur.

Monsignor Alexis Riccaz, who became the first bishop of Nagpur In 1890, mooted the idea of seminary building in 1886.

He bought a plot of 39 acres in two installments from Raja Bhonsle. Later, 11 more acres were bought by Riccaz’s successor Bishop Francis Coppel.

On September 8, 1896, the death anniversary of Bishop Riccaz, the foundation stone of the first seminary building was laid.

The building was planned on the model of the Fransalian Apostolic School in Evian (France).

Fransalian Father Hippolyte Gaydon was appointed the first rector.

In 1922, the seminary was closed for lack of funds and the seminarians were sent to St. Joseph’s Seminary, Mangalore, Trichinopoly, Allahabad and Kandy (Sri Lanka).

Bishop Louis Gayet, the sixth prelate of Nagpur (1935-1950), opened the second phase of the seminary on August, 15, 1935, with Fransalian Father Damian Fernandes as the rector.

The seminary received another severe setback on June 26, 1942, when the government of the then Central Provinces requisitioned the building for emergency war purposes.

Within 48 hours, the seminarians quit the place, and took shelter in the Apostolic School, situated near the cathedral. The seminary discontinued its Philosophy and Theology sections as it had no proper accommodation and sufficient professors.

Archbishop Eugene D’Souza, the first Indian bishop of the diocese, decided to build a new seminary building. Accordingly, on October 3, 1955, the foundation stone of the present building was laid.

In July 1957, as many as 32 Seminarians moved in to the building that was not yet complete. On February 1, 1959, Inter-Nuncio Cardinal James Knox blessed the new seminary with 43 seminarians and 45 apostolic school students.

Archbishop Eugene D’Souza invited the Dominicans of the Irish province to administer the seminary. They began training priests in June 1960 with Father Gerald Cussen as the rector.

In 1970, Archbishop Leonard Raymond opened the new block of classrooms. Then in 1981, Archbishop Leobard D’Souza blessed the new wing of 60 rooms for the theologians.

Initially the seminary was meant only for Nagpur diocese. Later it started admitting students from other dioceses.