In 1886, five European women started Pete’s first hospital in Bengaluru

St Martha’s Hospital

On August 15, 1854, five women reached Bengaluru after travelling 12 days in a jhatka gaadi (horse-drawn carriage) from Puducherry. Nurses by vocation, they set up a small medical facility in the premises of the old jail barracks on Museum Road. They treated the ill and sheltered the diseased, the latter often abandoned by their own family. Eventually, the facility also became a home for orphans and a school for young girls.

When a bubonic plague swept Bengaluru in 1878, the Bowring Hospital in the Cantonment — the only one in the city — became overcrowded. The Museum Road facility started by the five nurses —French Sisters who belonged to the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd — was becoming insufficient too. Therefore, by 1884, Mysore Maharaja Chamaraja Wadiyar donated 20 acres of land to the women to set up a hospital. Which happened in 1886. When the Sisters received a letter informing them of the donation, they were celebrating the feast of St Martha. The hospital, as a result, was called the St Martha’s Hospital. “It was the first hospital in the pete area. The premises was located on Nrupathunga Road, which, at the time, was the farthest end of the old city,” said researcher Narendra KV.



“St Martha was a friend of Jesus Christ, known to be an apostle of gentleness who gave hope to people in need.” Before the hospital was founded, Narendra explained, people often depended on a vaidya (ayurvedic medic) and were packed off to a temporary shelter off Magadi, if they had plague or TB.

Two key people helped the Sisters set up the hospital: Étienne-Louis Charbonnaux, a French missionary who was the first vicar apostolic of Mysore. His hometown was in Angers, France, where the Congregation was first formed by Mother Mary Euphrasia Pelletier.

Impressed with the service done by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Charbonnaux requested them to set up a medical facility in Bengaluru. At the time, Sir Mark Cubbon was the Resident of Mysore State. “Cubbon promised to give them land and the building but told them to work pro bono. The Sisters immediately agreed,” said Narendra. “The hospital also received an annual grant of ₹200 from the city municipality.” It remained the chief medical institution in the city till the Victoria Hospital was founded in 1893.

Despite the congregation’s global presence, St Martha’s is the only hospital it ever established. Since its inception, the institution has grown to a 500-bed multi-speciality hospital. Even today, the stone and mortar building remains intact and so does the greenery on the premises. Over the years, the Sisters have stayed true to their commitment of providing affordable healthcare to all.