BIGANDET, PAUL-AMBROISE. - Vicar apostolic of southern Burma, b. at Malans (France) on 13 Aug. 1813, he entered the Paris Foreign Missions in 1836, and set out in 1837 for Siam. In 1841 he transferred to the mission of Malacca, whose vicar apostolic Bouch made him his coadjutor in 1846; but he was consecrated only in 1856, with the title of coadjutor of Malacca and administrator of the mission of Ava and Pegu, which had then been left by the Italian Oblates of Mary. From that time he became the true restorer of the Burmese mission, which, in full accord with the English authorities, he developed in every religious and cultural respect. In 1870 he took part in the Vatican Council and then treated of the division of his mission into three parts: northern, southern and central Burma, with residence, respectively, at Mandalay, Rangoon and Toungoo. B. returned to the mission with the title of vicar apostolic of southern Burma (1871). He developed above all the school works (he was vice-president of the higher council of Education) and that of the native clergy with the seminary. At the end of his life, 19 March 1894, he left in the mission over 30,000 Christians, instead of the 3-4,000 he had found there in 1856.
His writings: a historical sketch of the Burmese mission (An outline of the history of the Catholic Burmese Mission, Rangoon 1887; French trans., La Mission de Birmanie, Paris 1890); a study, still highly esteemed today, on Burmese Buddhism: The life or legend of Gaudama, the Buddha of the Burmese. With annotations. The ways of the Nebhan, and Notice of the Phonggies or Buddhist Manks, Rangoon 1848 (French trans., Paris 1878); and other religious writings in Burmese.
Bibliography2 works
Giovanni B. Tragella