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196 BENEDICT VADAKKEKARA l. Capuchins in India at the close of XIX century As at the turn of the nineteenth century the strength of practically all the religious institutes in Europe was on the wane, the Capuchins too toiled to reinforce their overseas missions 4. In the wake of the reorganization of the hierarchical structure in India in 1886, there were various instances of redrawing the ecclesiastical map of the subcontinent to suit the missionary potential of the religious Orders. Apropos of the Capuchins the scenario was a rather fluid one. From 1888 onwards the Diocese of Lahore was manned by the Belgian Province. In 1890 the Province of Bologna assumed the pastoral care of the vast expanse of the Diocese of Allahabad. In 1892 the Tuscan Province shouldered the responsibility for the immense Archdiocese of Agra. The Apostolic Prefecture of Rajpootana was placed under the tutelage of the Paris Province in 1892. What had sprouted in 1745 as an isolated station in the middle of nowhere in Bettiah, had grown up in the course of one hundred and fifty years into a widespread network of ecclesial communities. Today it may be said that the primitive and far-flung mission stations created by these friars have in the course of time become seminal for some of the Catholic nerve-centres in the Indian subcontinent 5 • Roma 1935; Adolph of Mattakara-Fortunatus of Korlai, A compilation of sources for the history of the Indian Capuchin Province of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Coimbatore 1972; Atanasio Andreini, 1892-1992. Missione compiuta. Centenario dell'affidamento delta Missione di Agra (India) ai cappuccini delta provincia toscana, Firenze 1992. 4 AGCap H 4, II, Apostolic Delegate Anthony Agliardi's Rela:doni sui tre vicariati ap. cappuccini di Patna, Agra e Punjab (3 April 1885) made an incisive analysis of the Capuchin Missions in India when he said that they were all perilously understaffed: Patna had only 26 missionaries where there ought to have been at least 35; Agra had 27 where the actual need was for 33; and in Lahore there were 19 instead of the required minimum of 25. To make matters worse, a good few were overaged or sick.· APCapTusc. Missioni Indostan, lncarto I, Fr General Secretary of Missions to Fr Louis, Rome 3 April 1886: "E cosa che affligge ii sapere, che tutte le nostre Missioni sono sprovvedute di Missionari: e pochi sono come dovrebbero essere". The General Secretary of the Capuchin Missions was Anthoninus of Reschio, (Prov. Umbria). Louis Biagetti of Leghorn (Ludovico da Livorno, Prov. Tuscany), was Lector at the Capuchin Study in India from 1883 to 1886. 5 Eg "Saugor", a mission where Fr Raphael of Leghorn (Prov. Tuscany) laboured for 22 years, has evolved into today's Syro-Malabar Diocese of Sagar. Cf. G. Carlini, Raffaele Mecchi da Livorno (1827-1894). Missionario in India, Firenze 1995.