Mariam Nilaya, Banaswadi, Bengaluru 1968
Until 1963, the novitiate house for the Indian province was in Chittagong. Due to ongoing political tension between India and Pakistan, it was necessary to establish a novitiate in India. In 1964first novitiate was opened in Shillong, and then relocated to Bengaluru in 1972.
In Sept. 1968 a suitable plot of land was purchased at Banaswadi, then a small village on the outskirt of the city. Thanks to the untiring efforts Sisters Mary Philomene, Anne de Jesus, Mary IgnatiaFernandes and Mary SebastianZacharia who supervised the initial works, plants and trees were soon flourishing in the new property. The Sisterscame every day from Mariam Nivas to supervise the works. A small house was put up to provide temporary accommodation for them. From October, 1970 Srs. M. Anysius and Louise stayed in this house, and regularly visitedthe families in the neighborhood.
On 2nd July 1969 Srs. M. Ignatia and M. Sebastian started needlework classes for women, and opened a dispensary, then started a social benefit scheme and the Mother and Child Health Programme. Most of the recipients were expectant or nursing mothers and children aged less than twelve. On 2nd August 1970 a Nursery School was opened with one student. Today there is a flourishing high school with State and ICSE Syllabi with more than twelve hundred students.
In January 1971 Mariam Nilaya was raised to a Fraternity of Mariam Nivas, and on 8th February 1971 the foundation stone was laid for the construction of the convent building. In November 1971 Sr. Anselma took charge of the dispensary. The construction work was completed by July 1972, and on 11th July the first group of novices came from Shillong, along with Sr. Mary Paul, their mistress. The first groups of 1st year novices to join the novitiate were Martina and Teresa fromAgartala. Followed by the novices from Shillong Sisters Rose Mary Thomas, Helen Shah and Juliana D’Souza.
Sr. Mary IgnatiaFernandes in her own humble ways catechised the people during her regular visits each day in all odds of weather,she went around Bansawadi village, talking to all the people she met on her way, visiting the sick, comforting the lonely and the needy families, her kind gestures and her heart for the poor was over whelming, she gave generously from the little she had, she even begged and requested her friends, relatives and affordable families in the locality to give a helping hand in kind or cash for the less fortunate and those struggling to live for their basic necessities. She was a great missionary well knowed in Banaswadi.
When the Indian province was divided into three vice provinces in 1995, the administration for India South was housed at Banaswadi along with the community and the novitiate. As Banaswadi has developed very fast and Hospitals were mushrooming round the need of a dispensary was in question, and in 2007 the dispensary was demolished and began the construction work of the Provincial House. In 2009 a new provincialate which included accommodation for retired Sisters, was built on the Banaswadi property, and the novitiate community took over the existing building for Formation purposes.
