The Priests of the Society of Missions Etrangères de Paris (MEP in short) took shelter in India, when expelled from Siam by the revolution of 1687. They first set up a Procure at Chandernagore in Bengal but later shifted it to Pondicherry. Two members of the French Foreign Missions Society Father de Lionne and Father de la Vigne came to Pondicherry. Fr.de Lionne set up the Procure and appointed Father de la Vigne as its first Procurator in 1688.
Fr.de la Vigne who was also expelled by the Dutch in 1693 from Pondicherry along with the French Jesuits suffered very much for spreading of the Gospels. When Pondicherry was restored to the French, he returned to Pondicherry in 1699 and he started the construction of a building in a piece of land donated by a Christian lady by name Maria Dias – the land where to-day stands the Clock Tower of the Big Bazaar. It was completed by Fr.Tessier de Queralay who arrived at Pondicherry in 1699.
In 1730 on a piece of land donated by one “Pootchiammal” at Big Bazaar Street, they erected the “Church of the Foreign Missions” dedicated to the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mother. This land was adjacent to the one given by Madame Maria Dias in 1699. Mr.Ananda Ranga Pillai speaks of this church of the Missionaries (MEP) in his well-known diary. With their church and Procure in Pondicherry, the MEP Fathers helped the Capuchins and the Jesuits with great enthusiasm in mission work.
It was established in Siam in 1666 and was destroyed by the Burmese invasion in 1767. Hence, the MEP Fathers decided to shift it to a safer territory, namely Pondicherry. This Major Seminary established in 1771 was meant to prepare and form native priests for all their missions in the far-eastern countries. The Directors of the MEP Society bought a piece of land at Virampattinam, near Pondicherry. In 1775 Pope Pius VI approved the College General of Virampattinam and placed it under the special care of the Holy See. The first Rector was Fr.Pigneau de Behaine, who later became the Coadjutor Bishop of Cochinchina.
