St. Xavier's Institution
| St Xavier's Institution | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Location | |
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Georgetown, Penang Malaysia |
|
| Information | |
| Type | Government |
| Motto |
Labor Omnia Vincit ("Labor Conquers All") |
| Established | 1852 |
| Founder | De La Salle Brothers |
| Principal | Dr. Sim Hock Keat (acting) |
| Grades | Standard 1 - Standard 6 Form 1 - Form 6 |
| Gender |
Primary: Boys Secondary: Boys Coeducational (Form 6) |
| Campus type | Urban |
| Colour(s) | Green and gold |
| Affiliations | Malaysia Ministry Of Education |
| Abbreviation | SXI |
| Website | www |
St Xavier's Institution is a boys' school in George Town, Penang, Malaysia. It was established in 1852 and named after Saint Francis Xavier, the pioneering Christian missionary and co-founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit Order). While being a boys' school, girls are also admitted, albeit only in Form 6. The abbreviated name for the school is SXI with the pupils known as Xaverians or Lasallians,but among the students they were popular with the abbreviation SAINTS.
St. Xavier's Institution is the oldest surviving formal school in Penang and possibly Malaysia. While the year 1852 is inscribed on the school building, the history of the school begins much earlier than that.
On 25 August 1786 Reverend Father (and then later Bishop of Siam and Queda upon the demise of Bishop Conde) Domino Arnaldo Antonio-Garnault (who was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Siam), who had been residing at Cochin China and Siam (Thailand today), having been expelled with the rest of the Societe des Missions Etrangeres de Paris (MEP) from neighbouring Thailand in 1781, arrived from Kedah. Captain Light noted that Garnault was acquainted with the languages of those countries. Garnault asked Light for permission to build a Church at Penang and while Light sought to make excuses, Garnault, together with his people and asked permission to settle. Garnault picked a spot in the woods about four hundred yards from the fort (what would become Fort Cornwallis). He established a Malay language school in an attap shed in a stretch of mangrove swamp that eventually became Church Street. Monsignor Jean-Baptiste Boucho (who arrived in 1824) of the Paris Foreign Missions, with an allowance of a hundred Piastres a month from Governor Fullerton, moved the school from the church compound to a brick house he had constructed, turned it into an English-medium school for boys in 1825 and renamed it the Catholic Free School. On 20 April 1852, St. Francis Xavier's Free School, as it was known as then, and its 80 pupils came under the management of the De La Salle Brotherhood under the responsibility of two French Brothers, Lothaire-Marie Combes and Venere Chapuit and one American Brother, Jerome.
On Nov 1786 Francis Light writes to Mr John Fergusson, "Our inhabitants increase very fast -- Chooliars, Chinese, and Christians; they are already disputing about ground, every one building as fast as they can. The French Padre from Quedda has erected his cross here, and in two months more it will never be believed that this place was never before inhabited." (In 1785 Captain Light mentions that a French Padre, Antonio Garnault (bishop and vicar-general), came from Cochin China to Penang.
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Wikipedia