BERTRAND, JOSEPH. - Jesuit and French missionary, b. at Fréland (Haut-Rhin, Alsace) on 9 Nov. 1801, d. at Notre-Dame de Liesse (Ain) on 13 Jan. 1884. Jesuit from 1823, he studied theology at the Roman College (1828-32), where he also taught physics and mathematics. In 1837 he left for India as the first superior of the new Jesuit mission in Madura; he governed at a most difficult time of ecclesiastical reorganization and lively struggles with the so-called “Goan schism.” Forced in 1854 by illness to return to Europe, he negotiated in Rome the appointment of the first Apostolic Vicar of Madura and later served as superior and spiritual director in several houses in France; in 1870 he founded an apostolic school at Issenheim (Alsace), which, however, in 1872 was transferred to Amiens because of the *Kulturkampf*, and B. then exercised until his death the office of vicar in the sanctuary of Our Lady of Liesse.
His publications must be judged in light of the very lively polemics in Europe at the time concerning Jesuit missionary methods and their alleged opposition to the indigenous clergy. In this vein he responded to the attacks of Luccut, Marion-Brésillac, Blanchet, and others with his *Apologie des missionnaires réguliers des derniers siècles* (Paris 1848), later reissued in a calmer tone as *Mémoires historiques sur les missions des ordres religieux et spécialement sur les questions du clergé indigne et des rites malabares* (ibid. 1862). The work was extracted from the first volume of his collection: *La Mission du Madure d’après des documents inédits* (ibid. 1847-54), still useful because volumes II-IV contain a collection of unpublished documents on the ancient mission. Of the same documentary character, but concerning the restored mission, are the *Lettres édifiantes et curieuses de la nouvelle mission du Madure*.