BESSON, FRANÇOIS-NICOLAS-LOUIS. - Bishop of Nîmes, born at Baume-les-Dames on 5 Oct. 1821, died at Nîmes on 18 Nov. 1888. He studied at the seminary of Besançon and was ordained priest on 17 Sept. 1845; in 1848 he became vicar at Gray and subsequently at S. Maria Maddalena in Besançon, where he founded the seminary of S. Francesco Saverio. In 1873 he was appointed titular canon of Besançon and, on 23 Sept. 1875, was preconized bishop of Nîmes. Everywhere he left traces of his prodigious activity. A scholar, he took an interest in history and archaeology; he was among the promoters of the Catholic University of Lyon, founded the Comité de l'art chrétien in 1876 and the Revue du Midi in 1886. His conferences delivered at the cathedral of Besançon in the years 1863–74 remained famous; subsequently published separately in seven volumes (Besançon 1863–74), they constitute a complete course in Catholic doctrine. He devoted himself passionately to his diocese of Nîmes; generous with counsel to the clergy, he aimed to spread knowledge of the catechism—“l'oeuvre par excellence,” as he himself called it—among adults as well as children.
Among his writings, besides sermons, panegyrics, and funeral orations, the following are noteworthy: Vie de Mgr. Cart (1856); Vie de l'abbé Busson (1862); Montalembert en Franche-Comté (1870); Vie du cardinal Mathieu (1881); Vie de Mgr Paulinien (1885); Vie de Mgr Xavier de Mérode (1886); Vie du cardinal Bonnechose (2 vols., 1887); Le pouvoir temporel des Popes, written in collaboration with Cardinal Mathieu.
Gabriella De Stefano