The first Salesian Missionaries to India arrived in Tanjore in the state of Tamil Nadu on 14th January 1906. On 8th February 1934 the Indian Province, which had Mgr. Louis Mathias as its Provincial, was bifurcated into the Province of North India and the Province of South India. The Salesian Province of Chennai, with St. Thomas the Apostle as its patron was established on 24th January 1934 with Fr. Eligius Cinato as its first Provincial. The Chennai Province has given birth to several other Provinces namely; Salesian Provinces of Mumbai, Bangalore, Tiruchy and the Vice Province of Sri Lanka.

The Chennai Province is one of the largest provinces in the Salesian Congregation with 406 Salesians. The province comprises of 49 canonically erected communities and 7 presences and operates in 8 Dioceses—6 in Tamil Nadu, 1 in the Andaman Islands, and 1 in the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia. The Chennai Province (INM) primarily covers the northern part of Tamil Nadu, with its headquarters at Don Bosco Provincial House, The Citadel, Chennai. It also includes the Union Territories of Puducherry and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, along with the following districts of Tamil Nadu: Chennai, Chengalpattu, Dharmapuri, Karaikal, Tiruvallur, Kallakurichi, Kanchipuram, Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram, Krishnagiri, Cuddalore, the Nilgiris, parts of Erode (Thalavadi), and Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The province actively engages in 39 different ministries, focusing on the upliftment and holistic development of the young people and the poor and the deserving.

Vision Statement
We, the Salesians of Don Bosco, of the Province of St. Thomas the Apostle, are committed to carry out our Founder St. John Bosco’s apostolic mission in the Church: to be the signs and bearers of the love of God for the young and the poor.

Open to the good cultural values of our land, and following the values of the Gospel in the Salesian way, we, along with the members of the great Salesian Family and our lay collaborators, educate and evangelize the young and the poor, to build a world that is sustainable, just and humane and thus contribute to the building up of the Kingdom of God.