French cinderellas honoring the Jesuit mission in Madagascar (Tanaarive)
The second of these are from a set of 20 such stamps (see below)
The College of St. Michael, Amparibe
MADAGASCAR, 1988, the centenary of the Jesuit College of St. Michael,
Scott 855
The Jesuits first came to Madagascar in the early seventeenth century, from Goa, two of them together with the young son of the King of Anosy, who had been sent to Goa, and there been instructed and baptized by the Jesuits. The boy's father permitted them to preach Christianity in his dominions. But after they began to gain some influence, the king changed his mind. One of the Jesuits died, the other returned to India. In the 1840s the Jesuit superior general, Fr. Roothan, sent six French Jesuits from the Province of Lyons to help the new effort that was being made to evangelize the nation. They began with the outlying settlements and the work of education. By 1861 they had received permission to enter Tananarivo. And despite some set backs the Jesuit College of St. Michael was founded in 1888, in Amparibe, a section of the capital city, on land given to them by Prince Ramahatra. The college is also known as Kolejy Masina Misely and College Saint Michel. The Archbishop of Antananarivo,Cardinal Armand Gaétan Razafindratandra, is an alumnus of St. Michael's, as was Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo (1903-1937), one of Africa's most important French-language poets.