LIEVENS, CONSTANTIN. - Jesuit, missionary, called the "Xavier of Chota-Nagpur", b. at Moorslede (Flanders) on 11 April 1856, d. at Louvain on 7 November 1893.

A priest in Calcutta (1883), in 1885 he founded the mission of Torpa (western Bengal) among the Munda, extending it in 1888 to the Kharia and the Uraon with its center at Ranchi, which he gradually enriched with works not only religious but also cultural and social. He brought 100,000 pagans to the faith, baptizing 25,000 of them himself. A crisis arose in this rapid growth; but it was overcome by his tenacity and his efforts. He devoted himself above all to defending the poor Indians from the greed and extortion of the Brahmins, of the landowners, of the usurers, in order to obtain better legislation in their favor. Broken by the enormous labor, he went to recuperate in Belgium; but the illness did not spare him. Since 1927 Ranchi has been a flourishing diocese. In 1929 Moorslede erected a monument to Fr. L.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: V. Van Tricht, Le p. L., Namur 1896; A. Huonder, Bannerträger des Kreuzes, II, Freiburg im Br. 1915, pp. 1-33; F. J. Bowen, Father C. L., the apostle of Chota-Nagpur, London 1936; F. Chiappini, El hombre de un éxodo, Buenos Aires 1939.

Celestino Testore

@incollection{ec7_lievens_constantin, author = {Testore, Celestino}, title = {Lievens, constantin}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {1340}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/lievens-constantin} }

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Lievens, Constantin

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