The girls were taught their letters

Long before the sisters came, this village is said to have had a girls' school: the Church Missionary Society's Rhenius and Schmid are remembered as opening one here in 1821, and teaching needlework and lace along with the letters. The Sisters of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows were Indian religious, formed at Trichinopoly in 1876. By 1892 there were sixty-five of them, and of the four houses they kept beyond that city, one was here. Their particular work was the education of girls, and everywhere, it was written of them, “they direct flourishing schools”. The Society's Roman register sets the priest of Vadakkankulam down as chaplain of that convent and director of its school — in 1900, and again in 1914 under Fr Caussanel. In a country where most girls were never taught to read, the girls of this village were taught to read.

DocumentedThis moment rests on 4 sources.

ARSI 1900p. 55

-57P. Thomas Giuge, Prcef. spir., Mission. Rev. Paulus Sinnaper, Sac. scec., Mz'ssion. Joannes Gerbaud, Coadj., Ad .omnia. 2. Sattankoulam. P. Regís Nicolas, Mission., Cons. ann. g. P. Joannes Arulanandam, Mi~sion. 3. Vadakenkoulam. P. Marianus Dayriam, Cur. ag. paroch. etconv. monial. ind. sept. Dol. B. M. V.,Dir. schol., Mission.,Conf. NN. 4. Kallikoulam. P. Justinus Baumal, Mission. 5. Sendamaram. - 6. Viravanellour. P. Josephus Ignacy, Mission. 7. Kamayanayakempatty. - 8. Strivillipoutour. P. Stephanus Talon, Conf. NN., Prces. coll. cas. consc., Mission., Cons. ann. 3· P. Vincentius Jeganader, Mission. 11. -IN ORA PISCATORIA 1. Tuticorin. P. Alexander Martin·, Min., Cur. ag.paroch. et conv. mon. ind. sept. Dol. B. M. V., Con..f. NN., Dir. scltol., Prces. sod. juv. et puell., Cons. ann. 3· P. Georgius Baurens, Adj. paroch., Prces. sod. bon. mort. et fem., Coll. púnct. pro litt. ann., Mission.

In English

"3. Vadakenkoulam. Fr Marianus Dayriam, acting parish priest and [chaplain] of the convent of Indian nuns of the Seven Sorrows of the B.V.M., director of schools, missionary, confessor."

What this source establishes

The Society's own register, in Latin, in Rome, in 1900: the priest of Vadakenkoulam is chaplain of the convent of Indian nuns of the Seven Sorrows, and director of schools. (The Latin "Dir. schol." stands as a separate office — it does not necessarily attach the school to the convent.)