Samanvaya Theology College, established on 3 July 1994, is a movement of Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI) to impart contextualized theological formation and education for the future priests and missionaries
From the very inception of the congregation, giving leadership in intellectual, spiritual and contextual formation to the priestly and religious candidates has been one of its perceptible charisms. The founding fathers of the congregation, namely, Thomas Palackal, Thomas Porukara and Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara, were seminary professors and rectors. Once the first religious house (monastery) at Mannanam in Kerala was established (1831), a seminary was attached to it to impart priestly education both to the religious and diocesan candidates. In the course of time, seminaries were attached to other monasteries in Kerala. The aim was to improve the quality of the priests through systematic formation, efficient teaching and effective spiritual guidance. According to St Chavara, “An uneducated priest is not only inefficient to do anything in his pastoral work, but might even be detrimental to the salvation of souls” (Atmanuthapam, p.1). These seminaries inaugurated a new era in the theological education and priestly formation of St Thomas Christians
The seminary at Mannanam continued to exist and serve the Church until 1894, and later it was re-founded in 1918 at Chethipuzha. In response to the universal call of the Church and the signs of the times Later, under the leadership of Fr Maurus Valiyaparampil CMI, the then Prior General, the Seminary at Chethipuzha was shifted to Bangalore. To deepen the roots of the Indian cultural, spiritual and philosophical heritage, the visionaries re-named the seminary as Dharmaram College which means the “garden of virtues”. It was formally inaugurated on 23 July 1957 by Archbishop J.R. Knox, the Papal Nuncio. In 1965, the College was affiliated to the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome and 11 years later in 1976, the Congregation for Catholic Education upgraded it as a Faculty of Philosophy and Theology, an independent institute with rights to confer the Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Theology. On 7 November 1986, the Athenaeum was re-christened as Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram (DVK) meaning the “Temple of Wisdom in the Garden of Dharma”. In the year 1983, Darsana Institute of Philosophy at Wardha was founded with three basic orientations in formation: missionary, Indian and rural
Fr Vijayanand Nedumpuram CMI, then Prior General (1984-1990), envisaged a contextual system of formation for the future CMI priests of North India. There were several meetings of the members involved in the formation, mission field and administration from 1985 to 1990 in which the theological formation to be given in the proposed Mission Theologate was discussed in detail.
Fr Vijayanand appointed a committee headed by Fr Joseph Pathrapankal CMI the Dean of the Faculty of Theology, DVK, in 1989 to make concrete recommendations for a four-year formation programme. On the basis of the report of this committee submitted on 4 July 1989 and the request made by Mar Thoma Province, Chanda to start a Regional Mission Theologate, the CMI General Chapter held in 1990 discussed the proposal at length. The General Synaxis accepted the idea of Mission Theologate/s and appointed another committee headed by Fr Paul Kalluveettil, CMI to work out the details of the Mission Theologate/s. On the basis of the report of this committee, the 23rd CMI General Synaxis made a resolution to establish the Mission Theologate.
On 12-13 June 1993 Fr Thomas Mampra CMI then Prior General, convened a consultation at Dharmaram College, Bangalore in which an Executive Body of the Major Superiors from North Indian Mission with Fr Raymond Mancheril CMI as the Chairman was elected. This body was entrusted with the task of establishing and running the Mission Theologate. The Chairman appointed a Core Team of seminary staff with Fr Louis Malieckal CMI as Rector on 5 October 1993. Fr Thomas Mampra, in a letter dated 12 October 1993, informed the Congregation about the appointment of the Executive Body, the Core Team, and the decision regarding the launch of the Mission Theologate in the beginning of the academic year 1994-95. Samanvaya Mission Theologate was formally inaugurated on 3 July 1994 at Nirmal Sadan, Jagdalpur with 9 students and 5 members of the staff. Samanvaya established its own Co-ordinating Centre at Bhopal in 1996 and particular Regional Centres at Jagdalpur in 2003 and at Rishikesh in 2009. Prithvipal Sadan, Rishikesh housed the Samanvaya students from 1995 to 2008. From 2021 all the three batches of students and staff reside at Bhopal