Jean-Marie Déchanet

Jean-Marie Déchanet was born on 18 January 1906 in Isches, in the Vosges. He lost his father (Octave Déchanet) 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 (friend of saint Bernard) 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 The Way of Silence (Yoga for Christians) and soon the Christian Yoga in Ten Lessons (1956). Before Vatican II, he was the first to explicitly encourage Christians to practice yoga. He is therefore known as the "Father of Christian Yoga".[1] During these years he corresponded with Thomas Merton.[2]

From 1957 to 1964 Déchanet was in Katanga (Congo). 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.

• Marie-Thérèse Maltèse: Jean Déchanet, l'ermite du Valjouffrey, Paris, Le Cerf, 1981.

• Who was Fr. Déchanet?, Christians Practicing Yoga