Our religious congregation is the fruit of the deep God experience and the merciful love of our revered founder father, servant of God Msgr. Joseph Panjikaran (1888-1949) towards the sick and the suffering. Msgr. Panjikaran who was the director of the propagation of Faith in the Vicariate of Ernakulam had taken keen interest in his life to proclaim the Gospel to the poor. A zealous pastor that he was, Msgr. Panjikaran had directly seen the pain, the hardships and the loneliness of the sick and the poor during his many pastoral visits. It was his deep conviction that the church had the responsibility to provide medical service to these people. Realizing that the proclamation of the Gospel and all other activities towards the conversion of people are to be supported by genuine acts of charity, our revered founder decided to reach the good news of salvation to the people through the care of the sick. As a result of his earnest prayer and hard work, Msgr. Panjikaran opened a hospital under the title Dharmagiri (Charity Mount) at Kothamangalam, Kerala in 1934. At a time when that not many in the Catholic Church in Kerala had opted to nurse the sick, our founder decided to found a religious congregation for women that has care of the sick as its apostolate. For he was strongly convinced that only consecrated persons can see Christ in the sick and lead them to salvation by their compassionate service. On 31st October 1944 the then Metropolitan of Ernakulam Archdiocese, Mar Augustine Kandathil granted official permission. With the profession of seven sisters on 3rd July 1946 the religious congregation under the title the “Medical Sisters of St. Joseph” (MSJ) was canonically erected in the Church.
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