LUDOVICO DA BESSA. - Capuchin, sociologist, in the world Alphonse Élisée Chaix, b. at Besse-sur-Issole on 17 Oct. 1831 and d. at San Remo on 8 Oct. 1910. He began his social activity at Angers, which made him one of the pioneers of this kind of apostolate. In 1877 he founded in that city the first people's bank in France and in 1882, in Paris, the Crédit mutuel populaire for the benefit of workers and merchants. As early as 1875 he had founded the "Société protectrice du travail et de la vertu," the vanguard of French social action. The subversive laws of Combes (1903) forced him to take refuge at San Remo, where he devoted himself to studies of mysticism, on which he published numerous writings. His masterpiece is La science de la prière.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: Analecta Ord. Min. Cap., 26 (1910), pp. 372-73; H. de Barenton, Le p. L. de B. L'apôtre et l'initiateur des oeuvres sociales en France, Paris 1935 (cf. Collectanea Franciscana, 6 [1936], pp. 620-21).

Ireneo Daniele

@incollection{ec7_ludovico_da_bessa, author = {Daniele, Ireneo}, title = {Ludovico da Bessa}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {1639}, 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/ludovico-da-bessa} }

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