Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/594

 BESANGE

526

BESOIGNE

Vesoul; 3 homes for the aged in Besan^on; 1 infant asylum, 1 boys' orphanage, and 4 gratuitous in- dustrial schools in Vesoul. all conducted by nuns; 1 deaf-mute institute and 1 boys' orphanage in Besan^on conducted by brothers.

In 1900 the diocese had the foUomng religious orders, Men: Capuchins. Eudists. and Marianists at Besanc,^on, and Trappists at Notre Dame de la Grace de Dieu. Women (purely local orders): Sis- ters of Charity of Besan^on. nursing and teaching, fn\Hided in 1799; Sisters of the Divine Pro^^dence of Frasne-le-Chateau, teaching, founded in 1780; the Daughters of St. James, nursing sisters mth a mother-house at Besan^on. At the close of 1905 the Archdiocese of Besangon had 657,773 inhabitants, 60 pastorates, 814 succursal parishes (mission churches), and 97 curacies.

Gallia Christiana (1860). XV. 1. 322; Instrumenta. 1-124; Richard. Histoire des diochses de Besani-on et de Saint-Claude (Besangon. 1847-50); Suchet. Notre Daine de Besan^on et du departement du Doubs (Besancon. 1892); Bergier. Etude sur I'hymnaire bisontin du cardinal Mathieu, archeveque de Besan- con (Besancon, 1886); Duchesne, Fastes episcopaux, I; CuEv.tLiEB, Topobibl., 382-384.

Georges Goyau.

Besange, Jerome L.\my, O.S.B., b. at Linz, 1726; d. 1781. For twenty-four years he taught Scripture at Salzburg. He published the following works: "Introductio in Vetus Testamentum" (2 vols., StejT. 1765); "Introductio in sancta quatuor Evangelia" CN'enice, 1775); "Introductio in Acta Apostolorum" (Pavia, 1782); "Fasciculus Myrrhm", a commentary on the Passion (Steyr, 1766); "Die sieben Busspsal- men" (Salzburg, 1776).

P.\RlsoT in ViG., Diet, de la Bible.

John Corbett.

Beschefer, Theodore, Jesuit missionary in Canada, b. at Chalons-sur-JIarne, 25 May, 1630; d. at Reims, 4 Februarj', 1711. He entered the Society of Jesus at Nancy, 24 May, 1647, studied philosophy and theology at Pont-a-Mousson, taught iiumanities and rhetoric for seven years in various loUeges in France, and after his third year of proba- tion came to Canada in 1665. From Quebec, where he was stationed for three years after his arrival, he set out on an embassy to the Mohawks, and to the Dutch at Albanj', but a sudden outbreak of Indian hostilities compelled him to turn back. In 1670-71, however, he was a missionarj' among the Iroquois. In 1672, he returned to Quebec, becoming superior of the Canadian missions in 1680, and retaining that office mitil at least 1687. A year later he was prefect of classes in the College of Quebec and in 1689 re- turned to France, where he acted as procurator of the missions. During his stay in Canada he was for sixteen years the spiritual director of the Ursulines at Quebec, and their annals describe him as "a man of distinguished merit and a director of great wisdom and experience".

Thwafte-s. Jesuit ReJatians. LXII. 91; XLIX, 273. 274; RocHEMOXTElx, Les JesuHes et la Xouvelle-France au XVIIe siicle (Paris. 1895-96). Ill, 371; S0M.MERVOGEL, Bibl. de la c. de J., I 1402; VIII, 1830.

Edw.ujd P. Spillane.

Beschi, Cost.\nzo Giuseppe, b. at Castiglione in the Venetian RepubUc. 1680; d. at Manapar c. 1746. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1698, and went to the Madura mission in 1710. during nearly forty years of apostolic hfe proving himself a worthy successor of tlie foimder of the Madura Mission, the celebrated Roberto de' Nobili. Once he barely escaped suffering death for the Christian religion. Though primarily a missionarj- and always at the head of a district, he is better known as one of the classical writers of Tamil literature. No sooner had he arrived in India than he began the study of San- skrit, Telugu, and especially of Tamil. Thanks to his genius and indefatigable industry, he mastered

the Tamil grammar in five years, and for the next twenty years made so thorough a study of the whole field of Tamil literature that the native men of letters bowed to him as their master. He composed a grammar of High Tamil, and was the first to write a grammar of Low Tamil (the common dialect ) which still remains the foundation of scientific Tamil philologj-. He is also the compiler of several Tamil dictionaries, among them the quadruple lexicon containing words, sj-nonj-ms. categories of words and rhjTnes; a Tamil-Latin and a Tamil-Latin- Portuguese dictionan,-. He wrote several ascetical books in Tamil, especially doctrinal instructions for the use of the native catechists; also controversial tracts against the Danish Lutheran missionario who sought to gain a foothold in the Madura Mission. Beschi is, however, best known as a Tamil poet. In a poem of 1 100 stanzas, " Kitteri ammalle saritiram ", he sings the praises of the martjT St. Quiteria (not St. Catherine, as some writers have mistakenly as,serted). His greatest poetical work is (he "Tcm- bavani " (The L^nfading Garland), one of the Tamil classics. This Tamil '' Divina Commedia" is divided into thirtj'-six cantos, containing 3.615 stanzas. "It is", says Baumgartner, "the noblest epic poem in honour of St. Joseph written in any hterature, East or West. In one of the most difficult languages of Southern India Beschi produced a poem which for riclmess and beauty of language, for easy elegance of metre, popular treatment, and true poetical conception and execution, is the peer of the native classics; in nobility of thought and subject-matter, it is as superior to them as the harmonious civilization of Christianity rises above the confused philosophical dreams and ridiculous fables of idolatry." Another poem " Paramarta- guru Kadey" (the adventures of the Guru Para- marta), in which he delightfully satirizes the foibles and conceited ignorance of the native gurus (heathen teachers), is the inost entertaining book in Tamil literature, bubbling over with wit and humour. Beschi liimself translated it into Latin. It has also been translated into English, French. German. Italian, and Canarese. Grasse and Babington, editors respectively of the German and English translations, seem to be ignorant both of Beschi's authorship of the book and of his great importance in the literature of Southern India, for they make no mention of his name. The tradition that he was at one time prime minister to a native raja is not sufficiently authenticated. In 1744 he was rector of the Mission of Manapar, where he died. His memory lives to this day in Southern India.

SoMMERvoGEL. Bibliotkcque de la c. de J., I. col. 1402- 09. s. v.; Bertrand, La Missian du Madurc. IV, 342-375; Je-\n, Le Madure (Tournai, 1894), I, 152-163; in particular B.vuMGARTNER, Geschichtc der WelUiteratur (Freiburg im Br.. 1897), II, 345-354.

B. Gm-DNER.

Beseleel, (BeQiil'el, in the shadow of God). I. The son of t'ri and grandson of Hur of the tribe of Juda (Ex.. xxxi. 2; xxxv, 30; I Paral., ii, 20; II Paral., i, 5). Being naturally endowed with a certain originality of invention, he was expressly called by God to be the chief architect of the tabernacle and its many appurtenances (Ex., xxxi, 2 sqq.). To him were entrusted the preparation of the holy oils, the incense, the priestly vestments, and finally the building of the ark and of the furniture for court and tabernacle. Special Divine gifts were also given to him and his assistants, especially Ooliab, for the proper execution of their office (Ex., xxxi, 3-6; x.xxv, 34—35; xxxvi, 1).

II. One of the sons of Phahath-Moab who married a foreigner in the days of Esdras (I Esdras, x, 30). F. X. E. Albert.

Besoigne. Jer8me, a Jansenist writer, b. at Paris,