History of Cluny Education

The history of Cluny Education is a history of liberative mission, initiated by a peasant girl Anne Marie, whom God had chosen and prepared, to manifest His tender, compassionate love, by making her a passionate lover of the Will of God and a channel of His liberative presence to the oppressed, suffering humanity of her time.

Born on 10th November 1779 in Jallanges in Burgundy, France, and growing up during the political upheaval caused by the French Revolution in 1789, she went about fearlessly gathering scattered children under the shade of trees and barns and instructed them on the rudiments of religion, morals and academic skills. After a period of active search and struggle, she founded the Congregation of The Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny in 1807 “to instruct the poor and to take care of the sick”.

St. Joseph of Cluny Girls Higher Secondary School ranks among one of the premier institutions in the Union Territory of Pondicherry. Founded during the year 1946 by the Sisters of the Congregation of St. Joseph of Cluny, the school has grown in leaps and bounds and today stands as an esteemed institution of great prestige, renown and fame. True to the vision of its foundress Bl. Anne Marie Javouhey, the students of Cluny are imparted sound moral, spiritual and social values. Besides academics, importance is also given to the all round development of the individual. A Cluny School leaver is well equipped and ready to collaborate with others in the building up of a just social order.

St. Joseph of Cluny Hr. Sec. School is a Catholic Institution, meant primarily for Catholics but open to students of other faiths, with special preference to the poor, and established by the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny which has its headquarters at Pondicherry.

Blessed ANNE MARIE JAVOUHEY (1779 – 1851) urged by the desire to seek, find and accomplish the will of God, founded the congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny, in Cluny (France), under the patronage of St. Joseph.
In 1826, the first three Cluny sisters came to Pondicherry. They were followed three years later by Mother Rosalie Javouhey, Anne Marie’s youngest sister. In accordance with the spirit of the Foundress, they launched out into social, medical and educational fields. To impart sound moral, spiritual, human and social values to the students, and to prepare them for their respective roles in society, schools were established.

St. Joseph of Cluny Matriculation School was started in 1946. It became a Higher Secondary School in 1979.