The college was founded in 1882 by the Fathers of the French Foreign Mission. The need for instituting a College of this magnitude in Bangalore was felt by the catholic Missionaries and it was the vicar apostolic of the coramandel coast, the Rev. Dr. Bonnand, who propounded the idea, in 1841, in a letter to Rev. Fr. Bertrand. Complying with the order, the Foreign Missions Society of Paris bought a plot of land on St. John's Hill and gradually made the transition to the location it occupies today.