Mount Rosary was founded on June 27, 1937 by a holy Priest of the Diocese of Mangalore, Very Rev. Msgr. Francis Elias D’ Souza. The first service he started was a Tuberculosis Sanatorium of 50 beds, both for men and women patients. Subsequently care and service was initiated for the aged and the dying by Msgr. Francis Elias D’ Souza especially for those who have no family members or children to take care of them in the last days of their life. After the demise of Msgr. Francis Elias D’ Souza, another holy Priest, known for Marian devotion in the diocese of Mangalore, Fr. John Menezes succeeded at Mount Rosary as the Director, and he started the service of a home for the destitute and unwanted people especially the single mothers. Succeeding three directors at Mount Rosary continued these threefold services to the best of their ability by improving various facilities either in agriculture or in health, or in providing other infra-structure.

Activities of Mount Rosary Charitable Institutions: The Activities of Mount Rosary are the following

• Taking care of sick people, of Tuberculosis disease and also of all tropical diseases
• Taking care of the destitute, both men and women, handicapped physically and mentally.
• Taking care of the aged, and bedridden till the end of their life and giving them a respectful burial.

Taking care of the sick:

Mount Rosary Charitable Institutions was primarily founded to take care of tuberculosis patients, which in the year 1937 was a fearful disease. But because of the present-day medicines, the T.B. disease is treated not as inpatients but as out patients. Still there are patients who are cured of T.B. disease and they have nobody to take care.  They are housed in Holy Rosary ward. Mount Rosary takes care of them till the end of their life, gives them food, health care, clothing etc so that the members could live healthily and they are occupied in flowery culture especially in jasmine cultivation, kitchen garden, etc.

 The destitute physically and mentally handicapped people:

The destitute and the handicapped are taken care in St. Ann’s home, where around 40 women are housed. They have prayer life, recreation, and they do cleanliness both of the persons and the house, and those who are able, take care of the animal husbandry of the Institution. This animal husbandry section brings milk not only for all the residents but also brings farmyard manure.

The aged and the dying senior citizens:

These are members who are senior citizens aged and dying and they are housed in St. Pius X ward. These members have to be taken care in a special way by using medical facility of physiotherapy and allopathic medicines. Mount Rosary has also its own hospital, called “Mount Rosary Hospital” at Alangar junction. We have a permanent doctor available all the 24 hours of the day taking care of all sick people of Mount Rosary as well as poor sick people coming from the 29 villages of Moodbidri region. The members of St. Pius X ward are mostly a praying community and those who are able, help the bedridden, do-little work in the flower garden, and do the watering of the garden in the summer season.

Helpers of Mount Rosary:

Giving service to all the inmates of the Institution is challenging, therefore from the beginning of the Institution itself there were volunteer women giving health services, maintaining kitchen, doing marketing etc. In the year 1990, a religious congregation of Helpers of Mount Rosary was founded by the sixth Director, Msgr. Edwin C. Pinto. There are 71 sisters in the Religious Congregation now and 46 trainees. These sisters are trained in various health and paramedical works and also in village social work and pastoral services.

There are around 150 inmates and sisters at Mount Rosary. Hence every day we need food for 150 members and 16 daily wage workers, who labour in our agricultural enterprises. We need also a sizable quantity of milk because of the sick and the aged and therefore we have a dairy, a small piggery for meat. We have five acres of land both for rice cultivation and for growing vegetables. In the other land that is available, we have around 500 coconut trees and a hundred cashew trees, rubber cultivation and even a number of mango and jackfruit trees, pepper vines and areca trees as well. Therefore we have enough production of coconuts for our whole years need, both for our food and for oil needs.

Mother Mary, Queen of the Holy Rosary

Mother Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary is the Patron of the Institution. All the inmates as well as the Sisters gather together in the Mount Rosary church every morning at 6.20 a.m. for Eucharistic worship. During the day some visit the church and pray for not only for the Institution, but well wishers and to those who serve our country. In the evening at 5.30pm, all pray the family Rosary, to pray to Mother Mary, Jesus Christ and Almighty Father to bless us all and all the people of India. Every Friday there is adoration to the Blessed Sacrament from 10 am to 12.30 noon for all the inmates, in which prayers are offered for all the intentions of the world, the church and especially for the donors’ intentions.

Conclusion
Caring for the elderly at home can be quite a challenge for caregivers. However, you can make it simple for yourself. Most elderly people do not ask for much but simply want to be heard. They want to feel like they are really the humans they were 20 years ago. They want you to care for them in a way they deserve.

If you take enough time to listen to their needs and communicate with them while being reliable and dependable, you will see that caring for older adults can really be simple and easy—a totally rewarding experience for you and the person you are looking after.

A basic need of any individual is a place to stay. Everybody would like to spend his time in peace, happiness and security. The residents of an old age home are no exception. It is therefore the responsibility of those concerned, to make the home for the old as cozy and comfortable as possible, a place where he could spend the last days in ways that would make him happy.

Mount Rosary makes every effort to make the residents feel homely and happy.   But the buildings where the inmates live now are old and decayed. The roof of the building are ruined. We would like to build new buildings or renovate the same for the inmates to live with proper facilities and good clean condition. We request your generous support for the construction or renovation of the homes for the aged and destitute people. May Mother Mary, Queen of the Holy Rosary bless you and all your intentions. Our inmates and sisters daily pray for you during the Rosary and Eucharistic Celebration.