HUGUES-MADELAIN BOTTERO. - First Bishop of Kumbakonam (India). Born in Chambéry on 20 January 1837, he was already a law student in Turin when he entered the Paris Foreign Missions in 1856; ordained a priest in 1859, he departed the following year for the Pondichéry mission, where he held positions of responsibility. He knew several European and indigenous languages, including Sanskrit. Appointed Bishop of Kumbakonam, he expanded its missionary works and districts. He wrote several historical-ascetical works in Tamil, but his name is particularly associated with the translation of the entire Sacred Scripture into Tamil, which he published in Pondichéry at the mission press: the Old Testament in 1909 and the New Testament in 1910. He died in Kumbakonam on 22 May 1913.
BOTTERO, HUGUES-MADELAIN
BIBL.: Missions Etrangères de Paris: Compte rendu des travaux de 1913, Paris 1914, pp. 323-34; A. Launay, Mémorial de la Société des Missions Etrangères, 11, ibid. 1916, pp. 73-75.