The history of Canossa College should be traced back to the founding of the Canossian Daughters of Charity by St Magdelene of Canossa. St. Magdalene of Canossa was born in 1774 into a noble family in Verona, Italy. Although she faced ordeals, such as her father’s death at a young age, her mother’s remarriage, as well as illnesses, this did not hamper her determination to care for the poor and to spread the Gospel of Christ.  On May 8, 1808, she founded Canossian Daughters of Charity, and began various benevolent and educational work in different regions of Italy.

In 1860, the Superior of the House of Pavia from the Canossian Daughters of Charity sent six pioneer sisters to do missionary work in Hong Kong. In 1890, Mother Maria Stella, the incumbent Superior of the Hong Kong convent and one of the six pioneer sisters, decided to carry out benevolent work in one of the poorest and most unsanitary slums at the time – Shaukiwan.  The Canossian sisters rented a house to teach and take care of orphans, street children and fishermen’s children.  

In 1941, Hong Kong was invaded and occupied by the Japanese Army. The sisters insisted on staying in the convent to care for the orphans and the Shaukiwan residents. Due to a shortage of supplies from the war, the sisters and orphans could only live frugally and fill their hunger with congee. The Second World War ended in 1945 and Hong Kong was liberated from the Japanese rule. The convent was then taken over by the British army and later on requisitioned as a police station by the government. The convent was finally returned to the Canossian Daughters of Charity in December 1950.

To address the needs of girls with visual impairment, the sisters built a four-storey building on a piece of coastal land adjacent to the school. The construction work was completed in 1958.  the government would build a school for the visually impaired in Wan Chai for Canossian Daughters of Charity, they decided to use this four-storey building to establish a grammar secondary school.

The secondary school, namely the Canossian Convent Secondary School, was officially established on September 1, 1959. This was the predecessor of Canossa College today. A total of 92 Form One students were enrolled.  From then on, the Canossian Convent School in Shaukiwan became a school with secondary and half-day primary sections, kindergarten, special classes for underprivileged students and evening schools for young women working in factories.  The first batch of Middle Three and Middle Five students sat for Public Examinations in 1965. The Secondary School evolved from a private assisted school to a fully subsidized one in 1978.

With the rapid development in the Eastern District, the Shaukiwan campus gave way to the construction of the Island Eastern Corridor and the MTR Island Line in 1982. The school was transferred to the present site in Quarry Bay. The Quarry Bay campus is on reclaimed land and the construction of the campus was completed in two years.

After weathering 93 years of service in Shaukiwan, Canossian Convent School moved to its new premise in Quarry Bay in September 1984. The secondary section was then renamed Canossa College. Canossa College became a standard secondary school with 29 classes from Form One to Form Seven and adopted English as the medium of instruction.

To provide more classrooms and space for students’ activity, the school decided to build the New Wing. In February 2004, the construction work of the New Wing was completed, and a grand opening of the New Wing was officiated by John Tong, the Auxiliary Bishop of Hong Kong on 10 July 2004.