In the city of Madurai in India that has a documented history of about 2.000 years, there stands a more-than-century-old school, St Mary’s Higher Secondary School. The school takes pride of being the neighbour of Tirumalai Nayak’s Palace of the 17th Century. Besides the historical monument, the Nayak Mahal, the twin spire of the Cathedral of the Our Lady of Lourdes stands tall and prominent. It is a common sight of every day that pedestrians of all faiths take off their shoes at the sight of seeing the Cathedral to pay their respect as they head to their workplace.

The cultural and religious diversities are prevalent in the city.  The same spirit is sighted on the school campus too!  The school has a students strength of about  3583- one of the highest in the city. However, the number of  Catholics and other denominations of Christians comes to about 8%. For various reasons, this number has been either stagnant or on the decline year after year.

The Jesuit Management leaves no stones unturned in strengthening the faith of the Christian Students. There are monthly Mass, thrice-a-week-catechisms classes. In the wake of Lent, on Fridays, at the closure of school hours, the Christian Students are taken to the Cathedral for the way of the Cross. A priest in charge, the Campus Minister is vested with the responsibility of coordinating these faith-related activities.

Different students of different Standards from VI to XII take turns both to conceive the theme of the Way of the Cross for each week and to walk the other students and the staff through this prayerful Way of the Cross.

As a footnote, it is good to note that, while the Christians are led through faith-related activities, exclusive school assemblies are organized for the students of other faiths.