BETTIAH, EX PREFETTURA APOSTOLICA di. — Apostolic prefecture erected in 1892, to whose territory the entire kingdom of Nepal was annexed the following year. The mission was entrusted to the Tyrolean Capuchins.
The origin of the mission station at B. is due to the Capuchin Fr. Giuseppe (Benimi) da Gargnano (v.), who obtained freedom to preach from the queen of B., whom he had treated during a serious illness; he directed that station for fifteen years. The prefecture, which outside the civil district of B. developed little, was suppressed in 1919 and incorporated PATENA (v.).
BIBL.: Missiones Catholicae cura S. Congreg. de Propaganda Fide descriptae anno 1907, Roma 1907, pp. 194-95; A. Battandier, s. V. in The Cath. Encycl., II, pp. 238-39; India and its Missions, Nuova York 1923, pp. 114, 123, 152, 181; Streit, Bibl., VI, p. 137. Giovanni B. Trajella