LAMBERT de la MOTTE, PIERRE. - B. on 28 Jan. 1624 at La Boissière (Calvados, France), he was first counsellor at the « Cour des Aides » of Rouen (1646) and then embraced the ecclesiastical state. Ordained priest on 27 Dec. 1655 at Coutances, he was appointed director of the Central Hospital of Rouen. In 1658, at the request of Abbé F. PALLIO (v.), he went to Rome to obtain the appointment of the first apostolic vicars.
The Congregation of Propaganda accepted the suggestion and indeed appointed him, on 29 July 1859, bishop of Beruta and, on 9 Sept. of the same year, apostolic vicar of Cochinchina and apostolic administrator of southern China. Having crossed Egypt, Persia, and India on foot, he arrived in Siam on 22 Aug. 1662 and established his residence at Juthia. In 1664 he composed the work: Monita ad missionarios de S. Congr. de Prop. Fide. From 1666 to 1670 he visited Tonkin and, in 1671-72, Cochinchina. In 1675 he was received by the king of Siam. In 1676 he set out again for Cochinchina and obtained from King Hieng-vuong the promise of religious liberty, through which Catholicism developed in a consoling manner. D. at Juthia on 15 June 1679.