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Places The Chapel
Any attempt at the study of the history of the school in incomplete without discussing the Jesuits. They are the 'spiritual sons' of St. Ignatius of Loyola, a Spaniard, who organized the 'Company of Jesus' or the 'Society of Jesus', or the 'Jesuits' in 1534 at the University of Paris.
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The crown jewel of St. Aloysius’ College is the Chapel. It was completed
with the construction of the school building under the tutelage of Fr.
Mutti and Fr. Willy. The rector from 1900 to 1904, Fr. J. Moore helped
transform it to a splendid collection of painted scenes from the bible. A
Jesuit Brother, Antonio Moscheni was brought from Italy to paint the walls
and the ceiling of the chapel, thus telling the story of the Bible in
pictures. Brother Moscheni came to Mangalore in 1899, when he was
forty-five years old. It took him two and a half years to paint an amazing
array of frescos on the sidewalls as well as oil-on-canvas on the ceiling.
This activity took place at a difficult time in the history of the school.
The attendance was poor and Mangalore was in the middle of an epidemic of
Bubonic Plague in1902. This was a bizarre coincidence, as Aloysius himself
had died from contracting Plague when he was caring for victims of Plague
in Rome, at the age of twenty-three. Monsoon rains damaged a part of the
college building and the college classed had been held in the newly
constructed red building. The funds were low but the inexorable Fr. J.
Moore, who was a Californian of Irish descent, never gave up hope. The
crisis was overcome and the challenge was met with Fr. Moore’s guidance.
Antonio Moshceni S.J., The artist par excellence.
There are two types of paintings in the Chapel: fresco and canvas. A
fresco is painted on fresh wet lime plaster walls. The colors get embedded
in the lime plaster as they dry. Frescos cover about 600 square meters of
the walls of the Chapel. For an oil painting, mixing pigment with linseed
oil makes the colors. The canvas is made of pure linen of strong close
weave. The paintings on the ceilings in the Chapel (about 400 Square
Meters) are in oil on canvas. Because of the Chapel and the Jesuit school
and churches, Mangalore earned the fitting name of ‘Rome of the East.’
More than hundred years later the paintings in the chapel showed signs of
decay from the weather and moisture of Mangalore monsoons. Cracks appeared
on the canvas and restoration of the masterpieces was done between 1991
and 1994, ninety years after Brother Moscheni painted them.
Originally the
'Society of Jesus' had six members. But many joined their ranks. At
present there are more than 28,000 Jesuits spread all over the world,
serving humanity in practically all spheres of life. They are probably the
most influential group of men within the Catholic Church. It takes about
fifteen years of spiritual and intellectual study to become a Jesuit,
including three years of philosophy and four years of theology. Apart form
their humanitarian activities of caring for the poor and the sick, the
Jesuits have a reputation as master educators. It was this reputation that
brought them to Mangalore, to start the college on the hill, St Aloysius’
College. 