The Coimbatore Diocese as such, began to take shape in the 2nd half of the 19th century by the hard work and the endeavours of the missionaries of the Foreign Missionary Society of Paris, to whose care the Holy See had entrusted the Karnataka mission after the suppression of the Jesuit Order. On 4th October 1846, the first bishop of Coimbatore was consecrated at Karumathampatty and a separate charge was given to him. When the missioners started evangelizing people, they clearly understood that education is the first and foremost need of the local people without which they would not be able to go further in evangelizing and developing the people. The work of teaching the rudiments of reading and writing was given to catechists, who had a fairly good knowledge of the local language. Besides teaching the fundamentals of Christian faith by word of mouth, they also taught the people to read and write. The missionaries themselves learnt Tamil, with great zeal and enthusiasm under the pandits and they in turn taught the people. They also slowly founded primary schools for boys, at first in Karumathampatty, the then head quarters of the diocese and afterwards, in Coimbatore, and in places like Ooty and Palakkad. The oldest school and the pioneering school in the diocese is St. Michael's Coimbatore, which is about 150 years old. It was junior college for some years.

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Seeing the sad plight of woman in the society and their lives without dignity and female children denied the basic rights of education, in 1853, one of the missioners Fr. Joseph Louis Ravel founded the religious congregation of the Presentation of Mary for women mainly to devote themselves for the upliftment of women through education. The very first nuns taught women in Karumathampatty and Coimbatore about cleanliness, keeping home and stitching. Then they slowly started serving in all places, wherever the missioners started schools like St. Mary's School at Karumathampatty, the presentation Hr. Sec schools at Coimbatore and St. Sebastian's school at Palakkad. With their wider vision and selfless dedication, the mission given by their founder, they undertook in course of years, ever so many educational institutions and today under their management they have three colleges and so many higher secondary and high schools catering to the needs of thousands and thousands of children.

A little later, Mother Mary of Passion founded the order of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, in the diocese to devote themselves, in the field of education. Thus the immaculate conception convent was founded at Coimbatore, the oldest institution run by them. As the years passed by, schools sprang up in all the villages and towns under the management of the diocese. Primary schools were upgraded to middle and middle schools to high schools and high schools to Higher Secondary Schools to colleges as needs arose and the people wanted.

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