The Society of Jesus began, appropriately enough, with a bunch of college students living far from home. During the 1530s, Ignatius of Loyola gathered up a small band of fellow students at the University of Paris. They called themselves “amigos in el Senor,” Friends in the Lord. The companions took vows of poverty and pledged to stay together and keep serving Jesus and the world, after earning their degrees. 

A little over a decade later, the first Jesuit school opened, in Messina, Sicily, in 1548. Today, with 470 plus years of shared experience in the field of education, about 3,730 schools carry on this tradition all around the world, caring for 2.5 million students across our one beautiful world. One distinctive aspect of Jesuit education at all levels is the emphasis on teaching “the whole person” — mind, body, and spirit. The schools foster not only intellectual development, but also moral and spiritual growth.  

St. Xavier’s School Gandhinagar, having completed 55 years of service in Gandhinagar, continues to aspire to live up to its rich traditions as a Jesuit institution.