The Carmel Rani School is a private institution run by the Institute of Our Lady of Carmel. This Congregation of Carmelite sisters was founded in Italy in 1854 by Blessed Maria Teresa Scrilli. The charism of the institute is to provide quality Christian and civic education to the young from their most tender years to adolescence.
In the later part of 2009, upon invitation from the then Bishop of Thanjavur, Most Rev Dr Devadass Ambrose, four Sisters from Kerala landed in Namanasamudram, a village about 10 kms south of Pudukkottai – to start a new mission. Eschewing city parishes where scope for ministry and chances of success were more, the Sisters chose this relatively small, little known parish as their base , for this was where, they felt, their ministry was most needed. Needless to say, the initial days were hard. Having neither any land nor any house, the Sisters gratefully accepted the diocese’s offer of a tin-roofed concrete structure – located in a corner of the sprawling campus of the diocesan-run St Joseph’s Industrial Training Institute (ITI) – and converted it into their humble abode.
The pioneering Sisters were all from Kerala, having little or no contact with Tamil. One can imagine the challenge such a language handicap could create in the context of ministry. However, the Sisters did not let the linguistic and cultural barriers bog them down. They adapted to the conditions quickly and set about the mission with enthusiasm, first concentrating on the pastoral ministry. The parish was still young, barely 12 years old, with its sparse Catholic population spread over as many as 13 villages. In coordination with the Parish Priest, the Sisters began to cater to the spiritual needs of the people – visiting houses, arranging village masses, taking catechism classes, bringing communion to the sick, organizing liturgical celebrations and conducting evening tuition classes. All the while, they kept exploring what particular mission they would start in this location, and what the locals needed the most – whether a hospital or a social service centre or a school.
The evening tuition classes, taken by the Sisters, and held humbly under the shades of a neem tree, became a terrific hit with the parents, who realized that under the tutelage of Sisters, their wards’ studies, discipline and language skills improved vastly. The parents wanted more than a tuition centre. They wanted a full-fledged school – run and staffed by the Sisters. The positive impact of the evening tuition, the parents’ request and their own analysis convinced the Sisters that “school” was the direction they were going to go in this mission. In choosing this ministry, their purpose was to provide a quality, valued-based, English medium education, and to do so at a minimum cost so that even poor families could afford it. Though there were already a couple of schools in the locality, their tuition charges were exorbitant, making quality education unattainable for the poor, agrarian families in the parish.
While the Congregation leadership wondered where to mobilize sources for such a big project and the Sisters were praying hard for help, as an act of God’s benevolence and providence, in came Mr. Sri, an Indian-born American citizen living and working in Houston, Texas, USA. His family moved to the U.S. when he was a young teenager, and several years later he stumbled upon the Carmelite Spirituality (which he fell in love with head over heels), leading him to embrace his Catholic faith all the more! Sri expressed to Very Rev Fr Fernando Millan Romeral, the Prior General of Carmelite Order at the time, his desire to start a school for the people of India, in particular in his home state of Tamil Nadu – an institute that will draw its charism from the Carmelite spirituality and stay rooted in charity and quality. Fr Fernando put Sri in contact with the Carmelite Sisters at Namansamudram (who were desperately looking for help) — and the rest is history.
Sri made an initial donation of nearly one crore rupees (about $200,000 USD) for the construction of primary and lower schools
(Kindergarten to V Grade). With that and some more contribution from the Congregation, the Sisters put up a beautiful school building, consisting of six classrooms, an office and restrooms for both boys and girls, complete with a compound wall and others. In a remarkable public event held in March, 2019 the new building was blessed by Most Rev Dr Devadass Ambrose, the then Bishop of Thanjavur and was opened by Mr. Vijayabhaskar, the Minister of Health at the time. The school, rechristened at the behest of Mr.Sri who has great love for Our Lady, as “Carmel Rani School,” started functioning in the new building since June 2019. Besides MrSri whose extraordinary help was indispensable to the materialization of this project, the school owes its creation to two hardworking provincials of the Congregation: Very Rev Sr Jancy Valunkal and Very Rev Sr Mary Panickassery, who left no stone unturned, in the process of establishing this mission.
When everything appeared to go as per plan, a roadblock came in the form of Covid Pandemic. Starting in March 2020, when the first corona wave hit worldwide, until May 2022, the school remained shut. Classes were conducted online. The absence of physical classes and other covid related issues caused a slump in student admissions in the next two years, arresting temporarily the growth of the school. However, things have begun to look up since June 2022.
With all the covid-imposed restrictions withdrawn, the school functions in the normal way. The school, at present, has 80 students on its enrolment, studying in varying grades from LKG ( Lower Kinder Garten to V ). Rev
Sr A Usha Antony (The First sister from Tamilnadu ) is the current Correspondent and Principal of the school. She and her dedicated team of 7 staff members, which includes four Carmelite Sisters, have ensured that the gap created by the Covid pandemic did not in any way hamper the educational growth of the children.
The last one year has seen many infrastructural developments as well. A school bus has been bought. With the help of a local donor, a flag post has been erected. Thanks to the contribution of the Mother General, Madre Maria Stella Marzano, who made a canonical visit to the mission in Jan, 2023, a beautiful children’s park has been set up. Keeping pace with the technology and modern trands, one of the classrooms has been converted into a smart class, and the rest too will be, over the course of time. New furniture, sports articles and library books have been purchased. With an emphasis on the multifaceted development of the children, extra-curricular classes such as Silambam, Karate, Yoga, Music and Classic Dance have been started.
