TABERD, JEAN LOUIS. – Born 18 June 1794 at St-Étienne (Loire), died 31 July 1840 at Calcutta.
Ordained priest on 27 July 1817, he exercised his ministry at Lyon; in August 1820 he entered the Seminary of the Foreign Missions in Paris and on 7 November of the same year departed for Cochinchina; in 1824 he became superior of the Mission, and on 18 September 1827 was named 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 forced him to take refuge in Siam, where King Prasat-Thong asked him to accompany his army in the conquest of Cochinchina. Taberd refused and was obliged to flee to Singapore (1834), where he learned that the Christians of Cochinchina partly blamed him for their misfortunes; he therefore judged it more opportune to obtain a coadjutor in the person of Msgr. Étienne Cuenot. After consecrating him on 3 May 1835, he went to India as interim Apostolic Vicar of Bengal. He composed a *Dictionarium annamitico-latinum* and a *Dictionarium latino-annamiticum*.