Benziger, Aloys of Saint Mary

BENZIGER, ALOYS OF SAINT MARY. - Son of the publisher Johann B., born on 31 January 1864 in Einsiedeln; he became a Carmelite at Bruges (1884), a priest in 1888, and set out as a missionary for the Indies (1890), where, after two years of teaching in the seminary of Puthempally, he was made secretary of the apostolic delegate Monsignor Zaleski, with whom he visited the whole of India. Elected (July 1900) coadjutor of the bishop of Quilon, Monsignor Ossi, he succeeded him in 1905 in that episcopal see. Thanks to his tireless activity, he succeeded in placing the diocese, in terms of the number of annual conversions, at the head of all the missions of India, providing for the instruction and the increase of the native clergy, erecting churches and schools, and introducing European nuns into the secondary schools and hospitals. On 4 July 1931 he obtained from the Holy See permission to resign, and, appointed titular archbishop of Antinoe (23 July 1931), he retired to the novitiate convent of the native Discalced Carmelites of Trivandrum, where he died on 17 August 1942.