Francis Acharya

Jean Richard Mahieu was born on 17 January 1912 in Ypres, Belgium to a farming family. He was the fifth son of the seven children of René Mahieu and Anée Vandelanotte.[1][2]

He had his early education and college studies in Brussels. At the age of twenty he went to England for higher studies. In 1931, when Gandhi came to participate in the second Round Table Conference as - one English politician said - 'a half naked fakir', Mahieu was sympathetic with Gandhi's nonviolent fight for India's independence. As his own spiritual development unfolded, he saw in Gandhi a path toward a more spiritual and harmonious world civilization based on a balance between action and contemplation.

In 1932, Mahieu had to complete his compulsory military service, in Belgium. During this time, he decided to become a monk, join the Cistercian (Trappist) Order, and go to India to lead a contemplative life in an ashram. He asked his father's permission and was denied due to his father's strong opposition to such a vocation. Despite this, in 1935, he joined a group of pilgrims going to Rome.

In an audience with Pope Pius XI, he expressed his desires and asked prayers for his future vocation. In September 1935, at the age of 23, Mahieu joined the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Scourmont, near Chimay, Belgium. He received a new name, Francis, with Francis of Assisi as his chosen patron upon beginning his religious vocation.

After his novitiate formation, he made his first vows and was sent to the Gregorian University in Rome to obtain a degree of Bachelor of Divinity. He then did further theological studies at the University of Louvain in Belgium. He made solemn vows in 1940 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1941. Soon thereafter, he was appointed novice master at Scourmont.

At this time, the abbot of Scourmont was planning to start a Cistercian monastery in India. He was interested in this work, although he was also interested in working in Africa. He was given permission to undertake a foundation by himself in India.

At that time, it was very difficult for a Belgian person to get a visa for India. However, Scourmont had a daughter house in Wales and Francis was given the opportunity to go to this monastery on Caldey Island as its novice master. After three unsuccessful applications for a visa for India he was eventually granted one through the recommendation of Vijayalaksmi Pandit, who was High Commissioner in England. Impressed by Francis's wish to work for the encounter between Christianity and Hinduism and by his determination to start a Christian monastic foundation rooted in the ashram tradition of India, Pandit Nehru, who was then the prime minister of India, approved the application on the condition that he would not try to convert anyone to Christianity.

Acharya set sail for India and arrived in Bombay on 12 July 1955. Swami Abhishiktananda (Henri Le Saux) welcomed him. Abhishiktananda and Jules Monchanin (Swamy Paramarubi Ananda) had already founded Saccidanada Ashram (Shantivanam) near Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu.[3] In Bombay Acharya visited several ancient sites: Buddhist caves at Kanheri, the island of Elephanta, and Ajanta. At Elephanta, Francis and Abhishiktananda were profoundly impressed by the central cave, a magnificent temple with immense bas-reliefs (7th century) carved in the solid rock, dedicated to Shiva Maheshwara in his different manifestations. They passed the night in the cave, where the sight of Maheshwara Sadashiva (a huge carving of Shiva with three faces) had moved Swami Abhshiktananda to ecstasy. After visiting Ajanta, Abhishiktananda went on alone to explore north India, while his companion returned to Bombay.

Acharya spent about one year in the ashram at Shantivanam with Jules Monchanin and Swami Abhshiktananda; he considered this year to be a period of novitiate for him in India with the two earlier pioneers on the same path. Afterwards, in November 1956, he left Shantivanam for Kerala.

At the invitation of Zacharias Mar Athanasios, the Bishop of Tiruvalla, Acharya went to Kerala to start the ashram. In the course of time, Bede Griffiths joined him there. On 1 December 1956, the two of them started the new foundation Kristiya Sanyasa Samaj, Kurisumala Ashram at Tiruvalla in the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. They obtained 88 acres (360,000 m²) of land, and on 20 March 1958, the eve of Saint Benedict's day, Francis, Griffiths, and two seminarians travelled sixty miles to the site, high up on the holy mountain of Kurisumala. They spent the next few months in a hut made of bamboo and plaited palm leaves, with no facilities, no furniture, and a floor covered simply with cow dung. To support themselves they started a dairy farm with cattle imported from Jersey.

Francis Mahieu later changed his name to Francis Acharya [4] and on 6 August 1968, he took Indian citizenship.[5] Later the same month Griffiths, after ten years in Kurisumala Ashram, left for Shantivanam with two brothers, Anugrah and Ajit, to take over that ashram from Swami Abhishiktananda.[6]

By 1974, Francis's health was declining. For several months he underwent Ayurvedic treatment, staying in a Hindu doctor's house at Geethabhavan, Kottayam. In 1979, he returned to Belgium and Scourmont Abbey, and had a hip operation, which was not very successful. He returned to Kurisumala. Soon the other hip was also affected.

Acharya traveled to Iraq and procured original Syriac prayers of the Antiochean rite (the Penqito). Over nearly two decades, he translated selected portions into four volumes totaling 2300 pages, named Prayer with the Harp of the Spirit, with certain adaptations to Indian culture.[7] (Harp of the Spirit was the name given to Saint Ephraim).

Published books include;

• Cistercian Spirituality[8]
• Cistercian Spirituality: An Ashram Perspective
• The Ritual of the Clothing of Monks
• Dhyanopasana
• Memorable Words of Life for Everyone trying to lead the Good Life[9]
• Malayalam translation of The Philokalia
• Malayalam translation of The Ladder of Divine Ascent.

In 1996, Acharya went to Rome, together with Geevarghese Timotheos, to ask the General Chapter of the Cistercians of the Strict Observance to affiliate Kurisumala as a monastery of their order. After the necessary procedures were carried out, Kurisamala Ashram became a Cistercian abbey on 9 July 1998, and he was installed as the first abbot.

Acharya died at Tiruvalla on the morning of 31 January 2002, after receiving Holy Communion. His body was kept until 4 February at Pushpagiri Medical College, Thiruvalla.

He is currently a candidate for beatification.[10][11]

• Marthe Mahieu-De Praetere: Francis Mahieu Acharya, un pionnier du monachisme chrétien en Inde, Abbaye de Scourmont (cahiers scourmontois N°3), 2001, 384pp.

• Syro-Malankara Catholic Church
• Kurisumala Ashram official website