TABERD, JEAN LOUIS. - B. on 18 June 1794 at St-Etienne (Loire), d. at Calcutta on 31 July 1840.
Ordained priest on 27 July 1817, he exercised his ministry at Lyons; in Aug. 1820 he entered the Seminary of the Foreign Missions of Paris, and on 7 Nov. of the same year he departed for Cochinchina; in 1824 he became superior of the Mission, and on 18 Sept. 1827 he was appointed titular bishop of Isauropolis and apostolic vicar of Cochinchina, consecrated on 30 May 1830 at Bangkok. He devoted himself especially to the formation of the indigenous clergy and to the development of the ancient institution of the « Lovers of the Cross ». At the beginning of 1833 persecution obliged him to take refuge in Siam, where King Prasat-Thong asked him to accompany his army in the conquest of Cochinchina. T. refused and had to flee to Singapore (1834), where he learned that the Christians of Cochinchina held him partly responsible for their misfortunes, and he therefore thought it more appropriate to obtain a coadjutor in the person of Mons. Etienne Cuenit. After consecrating him on 3 May 1835, he went to India as interim apostolic vicar of Bengal. He compiled a Dictionarium annamitico-latinum and a Dictionarium latino-annamiticum.