College General
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The College General (Malay: Seminari Tinggi Katolik) is a Roman Catholic seminary and an affiliated college of the Pontifical Urbaniana University located in Tanjung Bungah, Penang, Malaysia. The college's foundation can be traced back to the 1665 establishment of the Seminary of the Holy Angels in Ayuthia which was then the capital of Siam (now Thailand).
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[edit] History
[edit] Ayuthia (1665 - 1765)
The College General traces it's history to the establishment of the Seminary of the Holy Angels in Ayuthia, Siam in 1665 by the Vicars Apostolic Bishops Pallu and Lambert de la Motte of the Paris Foreign Missions Society. Among the first two priests that graduated was Francis Perez who was later consecrated a bishop and named Vicar Apostolic of Cochin-China in 1691.
[edit] Chanthaburi, Hon Dat, Pondicherry & Melaka (1765 - 1782)
The Burmese invasion of Ayuthia in 1765 forced the relocation of the seminary to Chanthaburi and later to Hon Dat in Cambodia (now in Vietnam). The political instability of that period resulted in the seminarians to live in poverty and although a new building was built, it was razed to the ground by rebels. The deteriorating political situation and constant persecutions forced the search for a more tranquil location for the seminary.
India was chosen and in 1770, 2 professors and 41 seminarians arrived at Pondicherry, India by sea after stopping for 2 months in Melaka. Despite its peaceful calm, Pondicherry proved unsuitable as it was too far from China and Indo-China where most of the seminarians came from. As a result, the seminary was temporary closed in 1782 until a more suitable place could be found.
[edit] Penang (1808 - present)
The island of Penang, a British colony since 1786 was eventually chosen due to its political stability and geographical proximity to the other mission lands. In 1808, a new Superior, Fr. Lolivier arrived with 5 seminarians from Macau and the seminary was revived with it's current name the following year in Pulau Tikus, Penang with 20 seminarians from China.
