LIEVENS, CONSTANTIN. - Jesuit, missionary, called the “Xavier of Chota-Nagpur,” b. at Moorslede (Flanders) on 11 Apr. 1856, d. at Louvain on 7 Nov. 1893.
Ordained priest at Calcutta (1883), he founded in 1885 the mission of Torpa (western Bengal) among the Munda, extending it in 1888 to the Kharría and the Uraoni, with its centre 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 amid this rapid growth; but it was overcome by his tenacity and efforts. He devoted himself especially to defending the poor Indians from the exactions and abuses of the Brahmins, landowners, and usurers, in order to obtain more favourable legislation for them. Crushed by the enormous labour, he went to recover 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.