School History

Carlo Tancredi Falleti, the Marquis of Barolo was born in Turin on 26th October 1782. Right from his youth, he distinguished himself for his intelligence, love for justice, attentiveness to the needs of the times, and a strong tendency to promote and to do good.

At Napoleon's court, he met Guilia Colbert, a woman gifted with exquisite femininity and genuine spirituality. Finding in each other harmony of profound values and ideals of life, they were married on 18th August 1806. Though being childless, their nuptial love vivified by faith and sustained by prayer led them to make their vast riches a gift of love towards others, especially the poor. The Barolo palace doors remained open for the miserable wretches and paupers of Turin.

While Carlo Tanchedi dedicated himself to others with generosity, especially during his activity as a Municipal councillor and Mayor of Turin. Guilia was an angel of charity. She devoted herself to the welfare of the poor. The pious lady also worked for the upliftment of the prisoners to raise their moral standards and to restore order and discipline in the prison. Being great scholars themselves, the Barolos were passionately interested in educating the little ones and youth especially the less privileged ones of Turin. This charitable religious zeal of the Marquis and Marchioness of Barolo enabled them to found the religious congregation of the sisters of St. Ann in the year 1834, to impart Christian education to children and to youth, and to render other charitable services required by the needs of the time.

Soon the congregation spread far and wide in Italy with institutions rendering humanitarian services through teaching, training, and preparing the children and youth to be good citizens. 1861- the sisters of St. Ann had completed 27 years of their service in Italy. At this time of our history, there was a chosen one among the sisters, in whose able hands, the responsibility to lead the congregation was entrusted. She was none other than Sr. EnrichettaDominichi - the 2nd Mother and Co-founders of our institute.

God sketched an extraordinary personality from within the ordinary, fragile figure of this young nun, and to this day she remains as a model and source of inspiration for every sister of St. Ann in her pursuit of holiness.

Blessed Enrichetta was a woman of great missionary zeal and vision for a better world. During her 3 decades long leadership, the congregation explored various human needs and reached out to different parts of the world to spread the message of love and brotherhood.

Mother Enrichetta's wildest dream was to be a missionary in India. Owing to her responsibility as Mother General she did not actually leave to be a missionary but became the creator and inspirer of her religious family's missionary apostolate. It was she who blessed and sent the first missionary sisters to India in the year 1871. On 22nd Feb 1871, the sisters of St. Ann set their foot on the Indian soil at Secunderabad. It was a humble beginning; a small, poor seed, like the grain of mustard seed in the Gospel, which was soon to grow into a great plant. And God blessed its growth as it expanded to various parts of India. Today, our presence is there in various cities and villages of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu. Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Chattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi Bihar, and Assam.

Our sisters work predominantly for the poor in our dispensaries, hospitals, and home for the aged. Every country in the world can offer infinite opportunities for Christian witnesses, and the sisters of St. Ann make sure that they act in accord with the local church in each of the environments in which they live and work. Being members of the International community, they spread the church catholicity and universality of love by their presence and service in India, the Philippines, the U.S.A., Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Cameron, Switzerland, and Italy.

The founders of the sisters of St. Ann pointed the way to world horizons, 'vast and far-reaching as the gaze of God'. And so they are now, ready to launch out new seas, encouraged by the words of their co- foundress addressed to each and all: 'Forge ahead, with generous hearts.