Tranquebar) attacks on the Catholic church. This unfortunately led to a number of attacks and counter attacks. Fr. Beschi was perpetually at loggerheads with the Tranquebar missionaries. His keen observation and unsurpassed capacity to learn languages was a great asset to the Catholic Mission. In 1721, Fr. Nadal wrote to Paris thus “Fr. Beschi knows Tamil to perfections and writes beautiful verses, a feat so far accomplished by no other missionary.”

Between 1728-29 a terrible famine broke out in Madura and Tanjore and reigned even in the most fertile part of the country, the Cauvery delta. During this time, the Protestant missionaries made use of the prevailing conditions to gain their ends. They enticed Catholics to their fold by means of money. It was at this time perhaps while helping the Bishop of Mylapore to redeem these Catholics that Beschi wrote the lovely poem on Mary (Our Lady of Refuge) namely Tirukkāvalūrkalampakam.

In 1731 he wrote “Our purely Indian dress is not protection against the weather. The strictly vegetarian diet, the bad quality of drinking water, the burning heat of the sun, all these are inconveniences which new comers find unbearable.” From this it is evident that Fr. Beschi suffered untold misery, despite all this he loved the poor and worked arduously for their uplift. He had both powerful and influential friends and solicited their help in procuring jobs, for the young converts. In 1730, Fr. Beschi wrote from Yelakkurichi that a school was opened there for Catechists. “A grounding in literature would greatly promote the glory of our faith.” Beschi wrote and added “And as I Have spent many years on that literature and am looked upon as well versed in it, I was appointed master of the Tamil School.“” He chose the intelligent among them and taught them Tamil Grammar, Prosody and Rhetoric.

In 1734, when famine struck again he found time after the day’s work to make a penetrative Study of the Hindu Calendar. This resulted in a treatise about it. It was about this time that the Zamindar of Ariyalur gifted a large piece of land to Fr. Beschi for building a church. This was in return for a remarkable