Feast Day Celebration in Klang and Inaugural Mass in Penang

I was back in my home town in Klang on the 11th and 12th of February to celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and also the 9th anniversary of my priestly ordination at my home parish. I was happy to be able to celebrate the Eucharist with Frs Michael Chua and David Arulanatham and the parishioners of OLL.

Despite the rain that Saturday, the feast-day celebration proceeded smoothly and ended with a procession in town. The following day, which was the anniversary of my priestly ordination, I celebrated two Masses and happily recalled that exactly 9 years ago, I stood at this very pulpit and gave my thank you speech.

In the afternoon I decided to treat my nephews, nieces and cousins to a movie. It was a first-time experience for all of us watching a 3D movie, ‘Journey 2 – The Mysterious Island’. Since I was already in KL, I extended my break for a couple more days to celebrate Valentine’s Day with my family and also to visit some friends.

I was planning to leave for Penang on Thursday evening (16th Feb), but something prompted me to leave early in the morning and I arrived in Penang around 10.30am. Just as I was about to go up to my room, I bumped into Archbishop Emeritus Soter Fernandez who told me that they would be celebrating the Inaugural Mass for the new academic year that evening at 6pm. When I heard this, I was happy that I had acted on instinct and left for Penang in the morning for I would now be able to join the priests and seminarians for the Inaugural Mass.

Bishop Antony Selvanayagam of Penang, who is also the President of College General presided over the Eucharist. In his homily he congratulated the students for choosing to offer their lives to serve Christ as priests. “Since you have chosen this path then you have to be prepared to meet the challenges to be like Christ – to suffer, to be rejected and to put to death,” he added.

The students were later welcomed and introduced to all present by the College Rector Fr Gerard Theraviam. This year we are pleased to welcome 13 students - Pre-Initiation Year (5 students), Initiation Year (2 students), 1st and 2nd Year Philosophy (6 students).

Mass was followed by dinner and recitation of the rosary at the grotto.

College General is one of the oldest seminaries in this region. A brief history of College General, since 1665…
PEREGRINATIONS OF COLLEGE GENERAL:
1665 – Foundation of the College at Ayuthia, Thailand
1680 - 1686 – College of the Holy Angels at Mahapram (10 kms from Ayuthia)
1686 – Constantinien College (Ayuthia)
1760 - 1765 – Burmese invasion forced the seminary to move to Chanthaburi, Thailand.
1765 -1796 – The seminary moved to Hondat (now ha-Tien) in Vietnam
1770 - 1782 – Virapatnam (5 kms from Pondicherry, India). Before the voyage to Pondicherry, the college was in Malacca (Peninsula Malaysia) for 2 months. It was closed for 15 years)
1808 – Reopening of the seminary in Pulau Tikus, Penang, Malaysia
January, 1984 till to the present – College General moved to Mariophile (Love of Mary), Tanjung Bunga, Penang).

The Present Staff of College General:

Rt Rev Bishop Anthony Selvanayagam (Bishop of Penang and President of the college)

Rev Fr Gerard Theraviam (Rector)

Rev Fr Julian Leow (Dean)

Archbishop Emeritus Anthony Soter Fernandez (Spiritual Father)

Rev Fr Edwin Paul (Formator)

College General has produced Saints and Martyrs:

Two canonised professors martyred in Korea in 1984 (Sts Laurent Imbert and Jacques Chastan)

Five canonised seminarians martyred in Vietnam in 1988 (Sts Philip Minh, Peter Quy, Paul Loc, John Hoan and Peter Lau)

Fifty beatified Vietnamese Martyrs.

College General Seminary in Penang