55 years: A Journey towards Excellence
Outsiders asked “Why Cor Jesu College?” I said “why not?”. Being a premier Catholic School in Southern
Mindanao was not achieved by just a blink of an eye, it takes at least five and a half decades of molding,
smiting and honing academic prestige, fifty-five years of nourishing students and transforming them to be
nation’s next pioneers of excellence. The school that molds the region’s leaders and responsible citizens.
But before the school has earned its esteemed title as one of the best schools in the region. Let me give
you a #Throwback about the school and its journey towards achieving its present situs.
#inthebeginning
At the dawn of its emergence, Cor Jesu College, was an exclusive high school for boys. It was the Boys’
Department of the Holy Cross Academy of Digos under the administration of the Religious of the Virgin
Mary. It was not really that difficult (to establish an institution that time because there was already an
invitation coming from the parish priest and the Bishop to manage a school. The Brothers of the Sacred
Heart in Canada came to Digos upon the request of Father Maurice Leveille P.M.E., then parish priest of
Digos and on invitation of the late Bishop Clovis Thibault, P.M.E., then Bishop of Davao.
It was then until when Boys’ Department became a college institution in November 9, 1962. It was
renamed Holy Cross College of Digos (former name of Cor Jesu College). Then it offered collegiate
programs. Three pioneering brothers test the waters of managing a collegiate institution namely; Br. Jean
Paul “Elric” Beaudet, S.C., Br. Clement Tranchemontagne, S.C. and Br. Guillaume McCabe, S.C. They took
over the management of the 220 boys of the Holy Cross Academy of Digos under the administration of
