BIGANDET, Paul-Ambroise. Malans (Doubs) 13.8.1813 — Rangoon 19.4.1894. French Catholic Missionary and Buddhist Scholar. Fifty years in Burma. Educated in Besancon and at the seminary of Missions Etrangères in Paris (two years there). In 1837 ordained as priest and sent as missionary to Malacca, later moved to Burma. From 1852…
BEYTHAN, Hermann. Teichel bei Rudolstadt, Thüringen 29.5.1875 — 1945?. German Missionary and Indologist (Tamil Scholar). Son of a farmer. After Mission School in Leipzig in 1895-1901 he was ordained priest and sent to India. Arrived in February 1902, he worked in Erode, at Fabrizius School in Madras and in 1905-09…
BESCHI, Constantino Gioseffo Eusebio (Constanzo B., Constantinus Beschius, Vīra-māmunivar). Castiglione delle Stiviere near Mantua 8.11.1680 — Ambalakat near Cranganore 4.2.1747. S.J. Italian Jesuit missionary and Tamil scholar. Nearly 40 years in India. Educated at Jesuit school in Mantua. Novice of S.J. 1698, then studies in Ravenna and in 1701-10 in…
GIUSEPPE MARIA DA GARGNANO (Iosephus Maria a Gargnano; lay Bernardino Bernini). Gargnano near Brescia (then Venetian Republic) 2.9.1709 (hardly 1711) — Bettia in Bihar Terai 15.1.1761. Count. Italian Missionary in Tibet. Son of Count Giuseppe De Bernini and Giovanna De’ Bettoni, partly grew up in Vienna. Joined the Capuchin order…
BECKER, Christophorus (born Christoph Edmund B.). Elsoff near Frankfurt 22.10.1875 — Würzburg 30.3.1937. S.D.S. German Catholic Missionary in India and Scholar of Missiology and Indian Ethnography. Dr.phil. and Dr.theol. A Salvatorian, ordained priest 1898. Docent 1900. From 1906 Apostolic Prefect of Assam in Shillong, India, formally until 1921, but interned…
BAULEZ, Marius-Joseph-Aimé. Marseille 12.9.1842 — Bangalore 29.4.1906. French Missionary in India. Ordained priest in 1865 and in 1866 went to Pondichéry. From 1869 worked in Cuddalore, 1872 in Salem, from 1874 taught Tamil at a college in Karikal, from 1875 until end stayed in Vellore. Publications: Transl. from Tamil: Le…
BATE, John Drew. Plymouth 1836 — 26.1.1924. British Missionary, Priest, and Hindi Scholar. Educated at Regent’s Park College, London. Member of the Baptist Mission in India 1865-97. After a short time in Eastern Bengal, spent c. 30 years in Allahabad until his retirement in 1897. Then returned to England He…
BAPTISTA, Manuel. 1??? — 1???. Franciscan Missionary in India in the 17th century. Apparently also an architect and worked in Daman. Censor of inquisition. Publications: Author of a Konkani catechism. Sources: Dahlmann 1891, 16; not in the old Franciscan Biobibliography.
BANHA, Manuel. 1??? — 1???. Father. Portuguese (?) Franciscan Missionary in India, probably in the 17th century. He is mentioned as the author of an unpublished Konkani dictionary, but the manuscript has disappeared. Publications: Apparently nothing is preserved. Sources: Dahlmann 1891, 16, similar brief mention in some more recent books,…
BAILEY, Thomas Grahame. Ambala 8.9.1872 — Edinburgh 5.4.1942. Rev. British (Scottish) Priest and Indologist, a Specialist of Urdu and North-West Indian Languages. Son of Wellesley Cosby B., a medical missionary, and Alice Hargraves, sent to school in Edinburgh. M.A. and B.D., ordained. In 1895-1920 missionary of the Church of Scotland…