A host of seven Belgian Jesuits arrived at Calcutta in November 1859, under the leadership of Fr. H. Depelchin (Rector: 1860-1871), in the Founding Father of the second St. Xavier's, They shifted St. Xavier's from Chowringhee to the Sans Souci Theatre in January 1860, which is now the honest home of learned professors and zealous students.
With one hundred and sixty three years of service to the nation, St. Xavier's College, Kolkata, has grown today into a leading educational institution in India. Both St. Xavier's School and College are proud of their contribution to the cause of education and culture in Bengal for 163 years. These twin institutions have produced many great educationists and students who earned regard and respect for their Alma Mater.
Fr. E. Lafont was appointed Rector in October 1871, He was a gifted teacher of physics. The terrible cyclone of November 1864 proved the begging of his fame. The catastrophe might have been much greater, had not Fr. Lafont signaled the timely warning.
It was Fr. O'Neill (Rector: 1904-1913) who gave the College its crest and the motto: Nihil Ultra, a motto, significant and suggestive of a noble ideal, of an unconquerable hope, that urges the Xaverian to a consistent quest for the higher. The motto of the young
