Introduction
The St.Xavier’s group of institution are established with a view to providing technical education and industrial training to those whom they are unreachable and unaffordable. The Trivandrum Social Service Society, the official body for social welfare and Community developmental activities of the Archdiocese of Thiruvananthapuram has taken a bold and advanced step to start institution venturing innovations.
Archdiocese of Trivandrum (Latin)
The Latin archdiocese of Thiruvananthapuram has the territory consisting of Thiruvananthapuram and Chirayinkil taluk of Thiruvananthapuram district with a small strip of coastal belt from Kovalam to Pozhiyoor in Neyyattinkara taluk and Nerody to Eraimenthura of Kanyakumari district in Tamilnadu.
The origin of Christianity in these parts dates back from the time of the arrival of the Portuguese in India and perhaps earlier. It is very likely that the Franciscan and Dominican missionaries of the middle ages who evangelized kollam and its suburbs worked also in Thiruvananthapuram.
Some of the churches of this archdiocese claim to be of pre-Portuguese origin with the arrival of Portuguese, but especially with the advent of the pioneer missionary, St.Francis Xavier, Christianity spread far and wide in these parts. With the result that, by the close of the sixteenth century there were well established Christian communities all along the coast. The saintly Arch bishop Benziger, who became coadjutor Bishop of kollam in 1900 and Bishop in 1905, was the apostle who propagated Christianity in the Diocese through the fragrance of his saintly life.
On July1, 1937 Pope Pius XI created the Latin Diocese of Thiruvananthapuram. In 1955 Bishop Peter Pereira was appointed as the Auxiliary Bishop of Thiruvananthapuram. His Excellency Bishop Peter Bernard Pereira became the first Indian to be appointed as Bishop of Thiruvananthapuram and thus the Diocese passed on into the hands of the indigenous clergy.
On June 3rd 2004 the Trivandrum diocese became an Arch diocese and Bishop Soosapakiam became its first metropolitan arch bishop. This Archdiocese is bounded on the north by the diocese of Kollam, on the east by the diocese of Neyyattinkara, on the west by the Arabian Sea and on the south by the diocese of Kottar.