Constantine Joseph Beschi
An Italian Jesuit who became a Tamil sage — poet, lexicographer and tireless missionary who, for thirty-six years, made the Tamil land his own “for the greater glory of God.”
Fr. Constantine Joseph Beschi SJ was ordained in 1709 and landed in Tamil Nadu in 1711. He served the Lord and his people zealously for thirty-six years with sustained commitment and creative pastoral involvement. His literary works, treatises on Catholic teachings and manuals for a credible life preached the Gospel and defended the Church, while he popularized devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints with a creative blend of Catholic tradition and Tamil practice.
Life & Mission
From Castiglione to the Coromandel coast — childhood, formation, the Pandaarasaami, and a near-martyrdom.
Read the story →Literary Works
An epic, poems, prose, four lexicons, grammars and the first Latin Tirukkural — downloadable as they are added.
Explore the corpus →Churches & Shrines
The houses of God he built and the Marian shrines he founded across the Tamil land.
See what he built →Timeline & Map
Trace his journey across South India on a historic map that follows your scroll.
Follow the journey →