A Brief History - History - About Joseph Vaz College

LOOKING BACK AT EIGHTY YEARS
By the 1930’s the sleepy village of Wennappuwa was quietly transforming itself onto a township. People depended mainly on fishing, farming and coconut related industries. The four villages of Wennappuwa, Ulhitiyawa, Dummaladeniya and Kolinjadiya were considered as a single area for the simple reason that most of the villagers, if not all, were devout Catholics and all of them belonged to the Wennappuwa parish. St. Joseph’s Church in Wennappuwa was considered as the Mother Church of the parish, even though St Nicholas, Church at Dummaladeniya, Nainamadama and St Xavier’s Church in Ulhitiyawa looked into the spiritual needs of their parishioners. Those in Wennapuwa and Kolinjadiya looked for their spiritual needs to the Parish Priest who resided in Wennappuwa.

THE EDUCATIONAL LANDSCAPE OF WENNAPPUWA IN THE 1930’S
The Franciscans and the Jesuits who had landed in Sri Lanka during the Portuguese period had opened schools along the west coast with the primary aim of spreading Christianity. The common language of instruction remained Portuguese. Historical documents show that those schools were nearly always built quite close to churches. A Dutch THOMBU of 1777 called WENNAPURI point to the fact that there was such a school close to the church in Wennappuwa. But when the Dutch captured the coastal areas from the Portuguese, they either destroyed those places of worship and learning or turned them into centres of their own propaganda. HOWEVER AT THE END OF THE Dutch period of persecution, it became possible for the priests of the Oratorian order/ to go in search of their spiritual children. Rebuilding of churches and adjacent schools began in earnest in1876.

Consequently, Oratorian priests managed to conduct catechism classes in the premises of the old church at Wennappuwa. When the old church was demolished in 1861 AD, the adjoining school was also moved to the premises of the new church by Rev. Fr. Constan Chunavel considered to be the architect of the new church. From then on, Wennappuwa became the centre of education in the puttalam district. It is clear that by this time there were people who could read and write, not only in Wennappuwa, but also in Nainamadama, Katuneriya and Chilaw. The following reports confirm the above statement. The Gnanartha Prdeepaya of Thursday 24th January 1867 carries the report that a certain Elias Pereis Gurnnanse of the Nainamadama school had been appointed to receive money and work on behalf of the paper. The same paper of Thursday 7th of February same year reports the appointment of a certain Warnakulasuriya Adithya Sembukuttige Paulu Janz of Katuneriya as a Muppu Rala. Finally in the Appendix of the Thursday 31st October 1867 issue mentions the wirter of an article as a gentleman who writes to us from Wennappuwa.

By the 1870’s Wennappuea had two separate schools for boys and girls. According to Rev. Fr. C. Chunavel’s notes the boys’ school had 125 pupils and two teachers in 1872. And by 1874 the girls’ school had 137 pupils and two teachers. But any major developments in the field of education in Wennappuwa took place only after the girls’ school was handed over to the Holy Family congregation in 1885 at the request of Rev. Fr. C Chunavel and the boys’ school was handed over to the Franciscan Brothers at Maggona by Rev. Fr. L. Prais on the 16th August 1903 more things were to follow. October 1904 saw the opening of a Lady Teachers’ traing college at the Holy Family Convent. The Holy Family Girls’ English School opened in 1929. The convent also became the training centre for the Holy Family Sisters. These events set Wennappuwa on a forward march and an age of both educational and economic development dawned. The unrelenting efforts by the Franciscan Brothers running the boys’ School produced more and more teachers. By 1930 the boys’ school had over 500 pupils and the girls’ school had more than 600.

WENNAPPUWA IDENTIFIES THE POTENTIAL OF ENGLISH.
With the building of the new church at Wennappuwa, the parishioners amiably referred to as the “Herd of St Joseph”, began to progress spiritually, educationally and economically. Nearly all the major churches fin the area had schools quite close to them and teaching was done in the vernacular. The only English medium school was in Chilaw, according to the following advertisement on page 149 of Geanartha Pradeepaya of Thursday the 21st February 1867.

The ad goes as follows, “WANTED - A teacher for the Roman Catholic English School at Chilaw. Apply to the missionary of the place.” The same ad appeared in the Thursday 28th February 1867 issue of the same paper.

It is clear that the English education in the area goes back to the 1860’s. The well to do lot sent their children to colleges Colombo, Kandy, Jaffna or Moratuwa. The others also wished to have the privileges of English education for their children. That is what paved the way to the opening of the Holy Family English School for girls. When the need and urgency for education in English was greatly felt the Wennappuwa parishioners made a representation to the then Archbishop of Colombo Rt. Rev. Msgr. Peter Mark (OMI) as Wennappuwa belonged to the Colombo Diocese after the separation of the North Western Province from the Jaffna Diocese and handing it over to Colombo in 1983. During this time four major congregations of Brothers were actively engaged primarily in education in the area. They were the De La Salle (Christian) Brothers, the Marist Brothers, the Franciscans and the Brothers in the order of St Joseph.

The Franciscans were in charge of the Sinhala schools in Wennappuwa and Chilaw. The English School is Chilaw was given to the De La Salle (Christian) Brothers on 02nd October 1932 by the of Colombo as instructed by Government Inspector of School Mr. E.H. Vanderwall. at the same time a formal request was also made to the Marist Congregation to open an English school either in Wennappuwa or in Marawila. It is interesting to notice that during this time, the Marist Congregation was managed by the congregation in China. The Marist Brothers preferred to set up camp at Wennappuwa. Finally they were able to purchase two blocks of land in Wennappuwa as a result of the powerful mediation of one Ponnamperumage Marianu Fernando and Rev. Fr. Massor appointed as the Parish Priest in Wennappuwa in 1933.

Acquisition of Land for the College
The following table shows details of how land was procured for the College. The Marist Congregation in China had contributed Rs. 1,400.00 to the building fund.

Serial No	Bought from	Area	Value	Date	Deed No	Notary Public	Bought by	Handed to
1	Ponnamperumage Michael Fernando of Ulhitiyawa, Wennappuwa	Acres 02, Roods 01, Perches 10	Rs. 3850.00	31-Jan-1934	3910	P.D.F. Croos	Archbishop Peter Mark of Colombo	The Marist Brothers
2	Warnakulasuriya Kalugamage Charles William Fernando	Acres 01, Roods 03, Perches 02	Rs. 2500.00	31-Jan-1934	3911	P.D.F. Croos	Archbishop Peter Mark of Colombo	The Marist Brothers

The founding of the College by the Marist Brothers and naming it as the Joseph Vaz College
Now the Genesis of Joseph Vaz College may be written as follows.
In the beginning, the Marist Brothers had four acres and twelve perches of land to start with. Just like the Church that started with four evangelists and twelve apostles, JVC also began to grow in its size, strength, popularity, and importance. Today it is a National School, fully supported by the Government, and one of the biggest, if not the biggest in the Puttalam district.

If one follows the story of the JVC through the last seventy-five years, one may read it as follows.

• February 1934 - The Foundation Stone was laid.
  
  
• 03 September 1934 - At 5.00 pm that day, Archbishop Peter Mark blesses and opens the new school building. Thirty-five priests including the Wennappuwa Parish Priest, all the brothers from the Maris Stella College, Negombo, the De La Salle Brothers from St Mary’s College, Chilaw and those from De Mazenod College, Kandana, some VIPs and parishioners attended the opening ceremony. In the first phase, construction of the two storey building was completed up to the stairs.
  
  
• 04 September 1934 - Plans to admit thirteen pupils and start teaching are aborted, but due to unavailability of furniture. 10 September 1934 - Twenty-nine pupils were admitted and formal teaching started with Rev. Brother Lewis as the Director and Rev. Brothers Honorius, Juan and Felix, and Mr. Felician Perera on the staff.
  
  
• Joseph Vaz College; the name itself must have had an unfamiliar ring those days because schools, churches and other religious institutions were usually named after saints, and Joseph Vaz was not in the list of saints!
  
  
• So, why was it called Joseph Vaz College? One story goes like this. Out of the five Marist Brothers who landed in Sri Lanka could finally arrive at their ‘Promised land’ Baticaloa. One of them, Rev. Bro Anthony became the Principal at the new school at Wennappuwa. He was a learned man well versed in several languages. During his studies of the apostolic services in Sri Lanka, he had come across an English translation of a biography of Father Joseph Vaz done by Father Ambrose Qator in 1913. He had used the French translation of 1895 done by Rt. Rev. Msgr Ladislaus Michel Zaleski, the Archbishop of Thebes and the Apostolic Nunciate of East India. The original was a work written in Portuguese in 1745 by Father Sebastian Rego, a Goan. Inspired by the immense spiritual and selfless service of Father Joseph Vaz, Brother Anthony had suggested to his congregation that the new school should be named after the man who had done such a great service to Sri Lanka. On approval, he named the school Joseph Vaz College.
  
  
• Joseph Vaz College, Wennappuwa was the first ever institution to be named after the saintly figure. No other institution had ever been named after Father Joseph Vaz, who had been awarded the honorary title of Devadasa Keerthi Sri Abhaya Muni Lanka Puthra by King Wimaladharmasooriya.
  
  
• 1976 - Commissioned by Rev. Bro. Patrick, a well known sculptor from Wennappuwa, Mr. Benjamin made a statue of Father Joseph Vaz and it was instated in front of the college. It was funded by the past pupils, teaching staff, retired teachers of the College, and well wishers in the area and by Mr. Patrick M. Pinto who generously covered the final shortage.
  
  
• The Marist Brothers, in those early days, had raised funds to run the school, from and among their well-to-do contacts on Colombo thus reducing the pressure on the parents and local population. They organized lotteries, carnivals and door-to-door ‘punching card’ collections in the vicinity for the purpose.