The school was founded in 1860 by the Society of Jesus, an all-male Catholic religious order. The school is named after Francis Xavier, a Spanish Jesuit saint. The founder of the school is Fr. Henri Depelchin, who oversaw most of the groundwork during the early years.
San Souci theatre
The San Souci theatre at 30 Park Street, Kolkata-700016, was burned to the ground in 1843. The property was purchased by Jesuits from Belgium and became the present campus.
Foundation years
The motto Nihil ultra along with the crest of the college date to the rectorship of Jesuit Fr. O"Neill, 1904-1913. The present imposing five-storied building was built from 1934 to 1940 at a cost of Rs 9 lakhs, which was collected partly from the public of Calcutta, assistance from Belgium, and the huge rental received from the American army that occupied the building during the second World War. Expansion of the school has been a long effort, with a campus slated for Salt Lake City, Kolkata and a second boys' hostel not far from the existing one. A commemorative stamp was issued by the Indian Post Office on 12 April 1985 depicting the campus and in its commentary recognising the school's contribution to society.In 2019,the foundation stone was laid for a new kindergarten section.
Programs
Students have excelled on the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education exam.In 2015, a student secured the highest marks in the ICSE examination while in 2017 a student scored the highest marks, among 73,633 examinees, in the ISC examination. In 2013 Xavier was ranked by Digital Learning as the top school in West Bengal. The school is divided into houses namely Berchmans,Britto, Gonzaga and Loyola, all trained in synchronized marching. The tertiary section extended to coeducational Honors Arts and Science programs and Teacher Training while still on the high school campus. Xavier runs a large hostel for male students. The school opened a university division in 2017, at New Town, Kolkata. In 2011 Xavier was judged the best eco-initiative school in Kolkata City for its preparation of compost manure for organic gardening. The school won a football tournament organized to promote outdoor exercise. The travelling cricket team in 2016 secured the first place in a tournament in Leicester, England. In September 2016 the school hosted an exhibition of about 90 paintings of Mother Teresa to commemorate her canonization that month.
Steps toward university
Xavier is expanding into tertiary education in collaboration with other groups, as with the Jesuit Xavier School of Management in Jamshedpur, on a new 17-acre campus in Rajarhat near New Town, Kolkata. A research centre with post-graduate courses is also planned. While schools of engineering and medicine are being considered, plans are progressing slowly to assure that fees will remain low and a wide range of students will be able to afford the education.
Notable alumni
Rabindranath Tagore, polymath, novelist, poet, musician, artist and the recipient of the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature
Jagadish Chandra Bose,biologist, physicist, biophysicist, botanist, archaeologist and Fellow of the Royal Society
Justice Indra Prasanna Mukherji, Kolkata High Court
Kaushik Basu, senior vice-president, former chief economist of the World Bank, Carl Marks Professor of International Studies and Professor of Economics at Cornell University, President of the International Economic Association since June 2017
Barun De, historian; chairman, West Bengal Heritage Commission, Calcutta
P. Lal, writer
Aditya Vikram Sengupta, filmmaker, cinematographer, graphic designer and artist
Mahan Maharaj, mathematician, recipient of the 2011 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award for Mathematical Sciences and recipient of the 2015 Infosys Prize for Mathematical Sciences
