Francis Acharya

Francis Mahieu Acharya (born January 17, 1912 in Ypres , † January 31, 2002 in Tiruvalla, Pathanamthitta , India ) was a Belgian - Indian Trappist , abbot and monastery founder.

life and work

Jean Richard Mahieu went to study in England in 1931 (after attending school in Brussels ) and became aware of the religious culture of India through Mahatma Gandhi's visit to England . The decision to join the Trappist order (following military service) failed in 1932 due to the father's veto and could only be realized in 1935 (after an audience with Pope Pius XI ) in the Scourmont Abbey , where he was given the religious name Franz (after Franz of Assisi ). After theological studies in Rome and Leuven , he made his solemn profession in 1940 and was ordained a priest in 1941. The monastery sent him to the Trappist Abbey of Caldey in Wales as a novice master .

In 1955 he went to India (initially Bombay ) and spent a year in the Benedictine Ashram ("meditation center") Saccidananda Ashram (also: Shantivanam) in Tamil Nadu, founded in 1938 by Jules Monchanin (1895–1957) . In 1956 he moved to Kerala at the invitation of the Bishop of the Archeparchy of Tiruvalla and in 1958 founded the Kurisumala Ashram together with Bede Griffiths as part of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church . In 1968 he took Indian citizenship under the name Acharya ("teacher"). In 1998 the ashram was incorporated into the Trappist order as Kurisumala Abbey and Francis Acharya was ordained first abbot. He died four years later at the age of 90.

Acharya translated into English the missal of the West Syrian rite according to the so-called Penqitho (also: Fenqitho ) from Mosul (1886-1896). Together with Monchanin, Griffiths and Henri Le Saux (also: Abhishiktananda, 1910–1973) he was important for the inculturation of Christianity in India .

Works

• (Translator) Prayer with the harp of the Spirit. The prayer of Asian churches , 4 vols., Vagamon, Kurisumala Ashram, 1982-1986.
  • 1. A weekly celebration of the economy of salvation
  • 2. The crown of the year. Part 1.
  • 3. The crown of the year. Part 2.
  • 4. The crown of the year. Part 3.
• Yoga. One Way to God , ed. by Martin Kämchen, Munich, Kösel, 1992.
• Cistercian Spirituality. To Ashram Perspective , Kalamazoo, Cistercian Publications 2011.

literature

• Kurisumala. A symposium on Ashram Life , Kottayam, Kurisumala Ashram Vagamon, 1974 (commemorative publication on the 60th birthday of Francis Acharya).
• Marthe Mahieu-De Praetere, Francis Mahieu Acharya, un pionnier du monachisme chrétien en Inde , Scourmont Abbey, Veilleux Scourmont, 2001 (Cahiers scourmontois N ° 3).
  • (English) Kurisumala. Francis Mahieu Acharya, a pioneer of Christian monasticism in India , Kalamazoo, Michigan, Cistercian Publications, 2007; Kottayam, Sopanam Publications, 2008.
• Johannes Sandgren, Jules Monchanin, Henri Le Saux, François Mahieu, Bede Griffiths , Skellefteå, Artos & Norma, 2011 (Swedish).

Web links

• Literature by and about Francis Acharya in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)