FRANCESCO MARIA da TOURE. - Capuchin missionary of the ancient province of Tours, died at Patna (Nepal) in June 1709.
From Persia he went in 1680 to the Indian missions of Surat and Pondicherry; an excellent connoisseur of the local languages, he composed a highly regarded Thesaurus linguae Indianae (= Hindostanicae), preserved in manuscript in the Archives of Propaganda Fide; he took part in the controversies with the Jesuit missionaries of Pondicherry concerning the Malabar rites, with a memorandum sent in 1703 to the aforesaid Congregation: Questions... sur les cérémonies Payennes... (Liège, 1704). On account of his linguistic expertise, he accompanied the first expedition of Capuchin missionaries to Tibet, arriving in Lhasa on 12 June 1707; never overcome by hardships, he was compelled to leave this mission in Jan. 1709.