SMA Illam is the second formation house built for training our philosophy students. It is situated about 23 kilometers from Madurai city towards south West Tamil Nadu, India. The foundation stone of the house was laid and blessed by Rev. Fr. Pat Kelly SMA on 15TH August 1993. The construction was completed and came to use after 2 years; SMA Illam was inaugurated and blessed by the late Arch Bishop of Madurai, Marianus Arokiasamy, on 6th August 1995. This house is situated in a quiet environment, away from the hustle and bustle of a modern city life, making it conducive for a serious philosophical and personal formation for the members. Regular farming activity and rearing goats and chicken help us to meet partial needs here.
Our seminarians do either Bachelors or Masters Degree in Philosophy at Arulanandar College, run by the Jesuit priests; this college offers various secular courses. Other religious communities send their students to this college for philosophy. Apart from the academic program in the college, SMA Illam formation house aims at the Integral formation of the students. The basic diagram of this formation program consists of human, spiritual, pastoral, communitarian, cultural and eco- formation.
SMA Illam celebrates the silver Jubilee this year (1995 -2020). The theme for the year is “To be like the Apostles: Full of joy, full of courage and full of zeal”.
At present, the total number of the community members is eighteen. And Fr. Robert Sagayam is the Rector of the seminary. Fr. Ashok SMA the bursar of the community. There are 13 students doing philosophy and two are in their secondary school education.
We gratefully remember the past formation teams, to mention a few, starting from Fr John Vzhalil, Rex Lumine, Francis Kalan, Dharmu, TT Simon, William Joseph, Mohan and Peter Pandi and other SMAs and our associate priests. May they all be blessed by God and fervently supported by the intercession of our Founder Melchior Marion de Bresillac.
