Jean-Marie Déchanet


Jean-Marie Déchanet was a French monk of the Benedictine order. Erudite and a great connoisseur of William of Saint-Thierry, in the 1950s he became the first to open the Christian world to the practice of yoga and became known as the "father of Christian yoga".

Biography

Jean-Marie Déchanet was born on 18 January 1906 in Isches, in the Vosges. He lost his father at the age of two and was raised by his mother Marie-Rose Braconnier, with his grandparents, in the Verdun region.
In 1924, at the age of 18, he entered the novice at the abbaye Saint-André near Bruges, Belgium, and made his religious profession in 1927. However, suffering from epilepsy, he was not ordained a priest. From 1939 to 1958, he wrote a series of articles and several books on cistercian mysticism of the 12th century, on William of Saint Thierry of which he became the great specialist. In the early 1940s, he took part in a number of physical exercises which, it seems, cured his epilepsy. He was ordained a priest on 22 May 1948.
Among these exercises Déchanet discovers Hatha yoga. It was a turning point in his life. From then on, practicing yoga and reflecting on the contribution of this Eastern practice to the Christian meditation and contemplative life, he wrote The Way of Silence and soon the Christian Yoga in Ten Lessons. Before Vatican II, he was the first to explicitly encourage Christians to practice yoga. He is therefore known as the "Father of Christian Yoga". During these years he corresponded with Thomas Merton.
From 1957 to 1964 Déchanet was in Katanga. The diocese of Lubumbashi was entrusted to the Benedictines of Abbaye Saint-André de Bruges and he helped found the Benedictine monastery of Kansenia, where he was successively master of novices and postulants and superior of the community. His attempts to africanize European monastic culture met with opposition from the ecclesiastical authorities. He decided to return to Europe.
With the agreement of his abbey, he moved to a hermitage in Valjouffrey, a hamlet in the Alps, in the Isère. There he devoted himself entirely to the practice of yoga, while studying and reflecting on how to integrate this spiritual discipline of Hindu origin into the Christian contemplative life. From 1970 onwards, Déchanet received visitors, students and disciples who followed his yoga courses, practical exercises and theology teaching. He also wrote extensively on the subject.
After 24 years at Valjouffrey, Déchanet returned to his abbey near Bruges in autumn 1990 at the age of 84. He died there on 19 May 1992.

Writings

About Guillaume de Saint-Thiery

Méditations et prières..., Bruxelles, Éd. universitaires, 1945, 244pp.
  • "Exposé sur le Cantique des Cantiques", Sources chrétiennes no. 82 Letter to the brothers of Mont-Dieu , Sources chrétiennes no. 223
  • le Miroir de la Foi", Sources chrétiennes no. 301
  • Guillaume de Saint-Thierry, aux sources d'une pensée", Paris, Éditions Beauchesne, 1978, 150 pp.

About 'Yoga and the Christian life'

La voie du silence , Paris, DDB, 1959. 232pp.
  • Yoga chrétien en dix leçons", Paris, DDB, 1964.
  • Journal d'un yogi, mon corps et moi, Paris, Le Courrier du livre, 1967.
  • Journal d'un Yogi, mon cœur et Dieu, Paris, Le Courrier du livre, 1969
  • Go where your heart leads you. Au-delà du yoga", Paris, DDB, 1972, 174pp.
  • Eio, la vie", published by Cahiers du Val, issue no. 4, 1974Yes to life. Vivant et libre, Paris, DDB, 1975, 155pp.
  • La Parabole de l'amour, votre corps, qu'annonce-t-il de votre âme?", Paris, DDB, 1976, 198pp.
  • Itinéraire d'un rebelle", Paris, DDB, 1982.