Saint Aloysius' College () is a boys' high school located in

Galle Galle (, ; , ) (formerly ) is a major city on the southwestern tip of Sri Lanka, south of Colombo. Galle is the provincial capital and largest city of Southern Province, Sri Lanka and is the capital of Galle District. Galle was known as ''Gi ...

, the capital city of Southern Province in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. The school was established in 1895 by recently arrived Belgian

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

missionaries, led by Joseph Van Reeth, first

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

. St. Aloysius' College is a national school that provides primary and secondary education. In 2012, it had 4,000 students on its roll.

History

St. Aloysius' College is situated on Mount Calvary, neighbouring St. Mary's Cathedral on one side and Sacred Heart Convent on the other. The college was established in 1895 by Belgian Jesuit fathers and was named after the Jesuit saint,

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga Aloysius de Gonzaga, SJ (; 9 March 156821 June 1591) was an Italian aristocrat who became a member of the Society of Jesus. While still a student at the Roman College, he died as a result of caring for the victims of a serious epidemic. He was ...

. St. Aloysius' College, Galle, is one of many schools named St Aloysius' College. Until the Sri Lankan government passed legislation for the nationalisation of schools in the island (with an exception of only a few schools), St. Aloysius' College was run by Jesuit Fathers, and the medium of instruction was English. The first Buddhist principal was appointed in 1971, and subsequently the medium of instruction was changed to Sinhala.

College today

The college provides education to 5000 students from grade 1 to G.C.E. A/L. The students of the school fall into diverse religious groups where over 90 percent of students are

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

s and the others are

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

(or

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

) and

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

Crest

Centre: IHS – Iesus Hominum Salvator("Jesus Saviour of Mankind")
1. The Tusker – Courage
2. Lilies – Purity of conscience
3. Torch – Torch of learning
4.

Rooster The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

– Symbol of Galle

Houses

Students represent five houses that are named after Jesuit Fathers who were pioneers in developing the school in its early days. Students are divided into houses according to their admission number. *-Cooreman *-Murphy *-Neut *-Standaert *-Vanreeth

Sports

Sports is a major part of St. Aloysius’ College. Cricket, Basketball, Rugby, Football, Hockey and Swimming are some of the sports among over 20 sports in College.

Rugby

Rugby takes a prominent role as it has a history starting from 1980s. As a foot step of that, with the motto ‘‘ Born with the Stuff ’’ Rugby was introduced at St. Aloysius’ in latter part of 1980s. The first historic match was played in 1992 against Richmond College. Taking centre stage of the annual sporting calendar are the St. Aloysius' - Richmond Rugby Encounter.

Basketball

The annual St.Aloysius'- Mahinda basketball encounter, is an annual basketball match played between St.Aloysius' College and Mahinda College, Galle.

Cricket

The Battle of the Glory of Galle is an annual one-day encounter cricket match played between the cricket teams of

Vidyaloka College Vidyaloka College is a boys' school in Galle, Sri Lanka. The school was established on 14 January 1941 by philanthropist Henry Woodward Amarasuriya under the patronage of Venerable Weliwitiye Punyasara Thera. It is a national school which accomm ...

and St. Aloysius' College, Galle. The contest was started in 2019 under the principal of Vidyaloka College;Prasanna Senewirathne, and the principal of St. Aloysius' College, Galle,Nayanapriya Perera and Anura Gamage. By 2025, four annual competitions have been held, with St. Aloysius' College, Galle having won three times, while

has yet to win. In 2024 and 2025, the match ended in a draw due to bad weather conditions.https://www.dailynews.lk/2024/10/10/sports/648919/4th-glory-of-the-galle-l-o-cricket-encounter-today/ Along with this, a one-day competition for under 15 is also held annually. The matches are held at the

Galle International Stadium Galle International Stadium (, ) is a cricket stadium in Galle, Sri Lanka, situated near Galle Fort and fringed on two sides by the Indian Ocean. It is considered to be one of the most picturesque cricket grounds in the world. Before being br ...

Principals

Old Boys' associations

There are a number of branches of the school's Old Boys’ Association located all around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Qatar and the United Kingdom.

Notable alumni

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Aloysius' College (Galle) 1895 establishments in Ceylon Boys' schools in Sri Lanka Educational institutions established in 1895 National schools in Sri Lanka Schools in Galle