History

In the 16th century, it was with Portugal’s expansion overseas that the Catholic Faith was brought to the East Indies. In 1534 the first diocese of Portuguese Asia was established at Goa with a layman, Miguel Vaz Coutinho, as administrator, which post he held until a bishop,  the Spanish, Franciscan Juan de Albuquerque, was appointed in 1538. Lanka, where at this time there were some Portuguese in Colombo and Kotte and a handful of native converts served by the first vicar or parish priest in the island, Joao Vaz Monteiro, formed part of this diocese. When 1558 another diocese, to the south of Goa the diocese of Cochin, was erected, Lanka being closer to it, became part of it. By now Franciscan missionaries from Europe had been in the Island for about 12 years.

When other religious orders came to the kingdom of Kotte, Jesuits in 1602, Dominicans in 1605, and Augustinians in 1606-the Jesuits were assigned Seven Korales as their mission territory, and the Franciscans the southwestern part of the island, to the south of Maha-Oya. What would later become the diocese of Galle thus became the mission territory of the Franciscans.

A document of 1628, quoted by both Queyroz and Trindade, gives a list of the Churches the Franciscans had in their territory. Those they had in the area covered by the present Southern Province were at Dikwella, Devinueara (Dondra), Matara, Kottaeatte, Mirissa, Weligama, Ahangama, Koggala, Galle, Wakwella, Hikkaduwa, Madampe, Welitota, Kosgoda, and three other places which have not been identified.

Of the Franciscan Missionaries who worked in the south, Antonio Peixot, the missionary of Matara for many years stands out for his command of Sinhala and his compositions in the language. We are told that he wrote and produced religious plays in Sri Lanka, held discussions with Bhikkus and taught the language to fellow Franciscans.

Although the south of the island was Franciscan mission territory, the Jesuits too had a church in Galle and the Dominicans two Churches, one in Galle itself and the other somewhat inland. Beside these, Galle had a hospital and a Misericordia for charitable activities.

When Dutch came in mid-17th century and began to persecute the Catholics, confiscating churches, and banishing all the Catholic missionaries from the country, some of the Catholics went back to their ancestral religion and some joined the Dutch Reformed Church, while others pre served in the faith in spite of the persecution. For about thirty years there were no priest in the country, where as to wards the end of the Portuguese period there had been over 10 missionaries. Then Fr. Joseph Vaz came in 1687 and he worked single handed for about ten years, except that for about three years he had the assistance of an Indian priest, Joao de Braganza

For a long time after the expulsion of the missionaries by the Dutch their were no resident priests in the south of Sri Lanka. But the mission stations formerly established by the Franciscans, principally in Galle and Matara. were visited by Oratorian missionaries. It is mentioned in the records of the period that Fr. Joseph Vaz visited Galle In 1701. He surely would have visited Catholics of the south as well, when-ever he “went around like the sun “on missionary tours of the island.

When four new missionaries, including Fr.Jacome Gonzalves, arrived in 1705, Fr.Joseph Vaz divides the island in to seven regions and assigned each to one of the missionaries he then had with him, keeping to himself the task of going around visiting all areas. The south western sea board, from Kammala to Matara, was assigned to Fr. Manoel de Mirinda, while the Sabaragamuwa region to Fr. Moguel De Mello

In 1730 Fr.Gonzalves, then superior of the Lankan mission, visited Galle “a district under heretical domination,”where, it is said, he made many conversions. He continued to visit their region from time to time. Of the miraculous cure attributed to him is that of the wife of the president of a chapel in Galle who was instantly cured of a long-lingering fever when she drank some Holy water given her by Fr. Gonzalves.

His command of Sinhala and his writings brought him to close contact with the people of Matara,a traditional stronghold of Sinhala Buddhist culture and Sinhala learning, where in the Portuguese period, a European missionary, Antonio Peixoto, well versed in Sinhala had laboured with success. We are told that in 1733 some leading men of Matara who had come to Colombo had seen some of the writings of Fr.Gonzalves and had been so taken up by them that they had invited him to Matara.

The tolerance shown by the English towards the Catholics in the south half of the 18th century enabled priests to move about more freely in Dutch territory and the Catholics to practice their faith more openly However at this time there was a decline in missionary zeal from what it had been in the days of Frs Joseph Vas and Gonzalves.

Then came the British in 1796 A decade after their arrival, the penal law of the Dutch against the Catholics were repealed. On 04 June, 1806, and religious freedom was restored to them. In 1834, 276 years after being part of Cochin diocese, Sri Lanka was constituted as a separate vicariate apostolic in 1838 the Indian Oratorian Vicente do Rosayro became the first vicar apostolic of Sri Lanka. He was succeeded in 1843 by another Indian Oratorian, Gaetano Antonio. During the latter’s episcopate European missionaries began to come to Sri Lanka again.

In 1847, the vicariate of Sri Lanka was divided into two vicariates, Northern and Southern, Jaffna and Colombo. And the Italian Oratorian Orazio Bettacchini became Vicar Apostolic of Jaffna in 1849. What is now the diocese of Galle became part of Colombo vicariate and remained so till in 1883 Christopher Bonjean, Vicar apostolic of safina was transferred to Colombo and the vicariate entrusted to the oblates of Mary immaculate, Pangani was transferred to the new vicariate apostolic of Kandy comprising Central and Uva provinces. The Southern and Sabaragamuwa provinces remained attached to Colombo.

During this period, when Colombo was a vicariate under the Oratorians, the Sylvestrines and the oblate Bojean, the Southern parts of the island were like outstations of Colombo. In the Dutch period missionary work had been done by periodic visiting and the localities where Catholics lived. The same continued in the 19th century. Though foreign missionaries were arriving the dearth of missionary personal was still the most acute problem the church had to face.

After the Erection of the Diocese of Galle

In the Southern part of the Colombo Vicariate, Galle became the Center from where a priest looked after the Catholics of the south. Among the missionaries who went on tour in the region was the indefaligable Pierree Boulic, OMI, in 1886 he went on an extensive tour of the Sabaragamuwa and Sourthen Provinces, stopping over for some days in each central place in order to visit the Catholic of the surrounding paths, in August that year he went to Kegalle and from there to Rathnapura and Haldumulla, In February the following year (1887) he went to Rakwana, Balangoda, Thangalle & Hambanthota. And in 1887 August he had travelled from Ratnapura to Matara via Deniyaya and Akuressa This was just 6 years before the diocese of Galle erected.

In 1887 the hierarchy was established in Sri Lanka. Colombo became and Archdiocese, with Jaffna and Kandy suffragan dioceses. The Southern and Sabaragamuwa provinces were detached from Colombo and formed in to the new diocese Galle, as a separate diocese in 1893 and entrusted to Belgian Jesuits, with Most Rev Joseph Van Reeth, SJ as its first Bishop. Thus a new chapter was opened in the History of the Church in Southern Lanka.

In 1914 the Bishop set up a minor Seminary in Galle and placed Fr. Bastenier S.J. In charge of it. It did not function for a time and was later shifted to Kalegana as an annexe to the Kalegana parish church, and after- wards, to the Kalegana Hill where a majestic building now stands, overlooking the Hiniduma Hills. That far sighted step taken by Bishop Van Reeth in 1914 has yielded good dividends, for between 1924 and 1969 most of the 21 priests. who signed for the Galle diocese passed through this minor Seminary.

In addition, the Bishop persuaded the Mother General, Mere de La Croix, of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary of Ghent, to send a contingent of five sisters to run a school for girls. This valiant band of sisters landed in Ceylon the very next year after the Bishop took possession of the diocese on the 19th October 1896 and began teaching in a mixed school from January 1897. By 1910 these sisters and others who came after them were running four major schools, one each in Galle. Matara. Kegalle and Ratnapura. In 1905, ten years after Bishop Van Reeth took possesion of his diocese, he founded a local congregation of nuns to which he gave the name of “Sisters of the Holy Angels”.

The European sisters were loth for a long time to take the native vocations except for “Oblates” Le. a kind of congregation within a congragation set apart to do the menial work of the house such as sweeping, cleaning, cooking etc. while the “more intellectual” apostolates like teaching, administration etc. were re- served for the Europeans. Now there were many young girls in the Galle diocese and elsewhere in the island, well educated, well qualified and even University graduates or those fit for University studies, who would like to be nuns but not second class nuns in a “first class congregation. It was for such vocations that the Bishop started the local congregation of “Sisters of the Holy Angels.”

The formation and direction of these nuns was entrusted to the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary of Ghent. For fifteen years (from 1905 to 1920) the Sisters of Charity formed its members in religious life. However only young girls coming out of English schools and whose education was more or less advanced were accepted. Vocations were slow to come at first but growth in numbers was steady and the formed sisters were assigned to the convents of different European Congregations. chiefly to teach in their schools. In 1921 the Bishop thought it fit to separate them into a house of their own. Such a house was acquired a little house of brick and mortar, very appropriately named Nazereth. In Templer’s Road, just by the side of the site where the new hall (built in 1929) of the college now stands. The Holy Angels working in Galle, continued to do their duties at Sacred Heart Convent but resided in Nazareth.

Soon Providence intervened in an unexpected way. A mission station was opened up at Ganegama in the interior of the Galle District, a short distance away from Galle, in 1915. The mission began to flourish and schools were needed for the steadily increasing number of Christians. Here was an opportunity for the newly founded congregation to strike root. After much hesitation Bishop Van Reeth bought a piece of land close to St. Anthony’s Church at Ganegama and the Mother House of the Holy Angels was set up. And the Bishop before his death, had the consolation of seeing the Congregation he founded, solidly established, with its own novitiate, a house of stud- les, boarding school and an orphanage.

As for schools, St. Aloysius College was established in Galle, and another St. Aloysius College was established in Ratnapura. a St. Mary’s College in Kegalleura. St. Gabriel’s College an Yatiyantota. A St. Servatius College at Matara and several elementary schools in the various mission stations. A Home for the Elders was established in Galle named after Bishop Van Reeth, another at Kegalle. New mission stations were established at Yatiyantota, Hewadiwela, Tangalle, Matara, Deniyaya, Hiniduma etc. By the time Bishop Van Reeth died in 1923 he had, working in his diocese 20 Jesuit priests, 6 scholastics and four coadjutor brothers.

Between 1923 and 1934 the Galle Diocese was without a Bishop. The Bishop of Trincomalee-Batticoloa, Rt. Rev. Dr. Gaston Robichez SJ was ad- ministrator of the Galle diocese. 

The Galle Mission which was dependent on the Belgian Province of the Jesuits was handed over to the Naples Province because the former was overburdened with a huge mission in Congo, another in Bengal and the Papal Seminary in Kandy. The Belgian province had been asking for relief for a very long time and it was granted at last when the Naples Province consented to take over Galle Mission. The first band of Italian Jesuits landed in Ceylon in 1924 on 6. November. They consisted of N.M. Laudadio. J. Casalaro, R.Chiriatti (Scholastic). J. Santaro and Antonio di Paoplo (Coadj. Bro.). The next Bishop of Galle was to be an Italian. And an Italian it was viz. Rt. Rev. Dr. N.M. Laudadio S.J., who had to wait for ten years before he was nominated to the see of Galle and consecrated Bishop in Galle on 30th September 1934. He retired in 1963 and died in 1969 at the Home for the Elders in Galle. With his demise the diocese was handed over to the secular clergy, the first secular Bishop of Galle being Dr. Anthony de Seram who was nominated in 1964 and died in 1982. Dr. W. Don Sylvester, also a secular cleric who was nominated on 15th October 1982 and consecrated in Colombo by His Eminence Cardinal Thomas Cooray on 11th December 1982 for Galle. On 6th January 1993 Dr. Elmo Perera, yet another secular was consecrated Bishop in Rome by his Holiness Pope John Paul II and nominated Auxiliary to the Bishop of Galle. Till August 1995 he was the Auxiliary Bishop of Galle.

Carved out of the Diocese of Galle, the Diocese of Ratnapura was established as an autonomous Diocese on the 2nd November 1995 by Pope John Paul II. Rt. Rev Mgr. Albert Malcolm Ranjith, (now Cardinal Archbishop of Colombo) was appointed as its first Bishop and was installed on the 5th January 1996. With this division Bishop Elmo was appointed as the Bishop of Galle in 1995. The Tsunami struck the Sri Lankan coast very severely in December, 2004. The coast of the Diocese of Galle was affected very badly. The holy See appointed Most Rev. Dr. Harold Anthony Perera, (the Bishop of Ratnapura at that time) as the Bishop of Galle in 2005 since the Bishopric of the Galle Diocese was Vacant. He took over the diocese on 15^th of February 2005. The Diocese of Galle was waiting foe few years for a new bishop when Bishop Harold Anthony was transferred to the Diocese of Kurunegala. Rt. Rev. Dr. Raymond Kingsley Wickramasinghe, the present Bishop of the Diocese was appointed on 27^th May 2011 and he was consecrated as the Seventh Bishop of Galle on 31^st August in 2011.