BESSE, LÉON. - Jesuit missionary, b. 27 March 1853 at Perigueux, d. 3 May 1919 at Madras. Having entered the Toulouse province of the Society as a priest (1881), he left in 1889 for the Madura mission. Until 1889 he taught theology at St. Joseph’s College in Trichinopoly, and from 1893 he directed its printing press. Parish priest of the cathedral of the same city (1900-1903), he subsequently became rector there of St. Joseph’s College (1903-1909), and finally regular superior of the entire Madura mission (1909-19).
He illustrated the history of his mission through various studies, the most important of which are: Les Exercices spirituels dans l'ancienne mission du Madure (Enghien 1910); Liste alphabétique des missionnaires du Carnatic de la Compagnie de Jésus au XVIIIᵉ siècle (in Revue d'histoire de l'Inde française, 2 [1918], pp. 175-242); Father Beschi S.I. His times and his writings (Trichinopoly 1918), and especially: La Mission du Maduré. Historique de ses Pangous (ibid. 1914).