Fr. Jules Monchanin, who took the name of Parama Arubi Ananda (the Bliss of the Supreme Spirit)

Jules Monchanin was born on the 10th April, 1895 in France in the village of Fleurie near Lyons.

Ordained priest on the 29th June 1922.

On Passion Sunday, in 1932, he received the official invitation from Bishop Mendonça, of the diocese of Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu.

He responded and arrived in India in 1938 where he served as parish priest for ten years.

In the diocese of Trichy (Tiruchirapalli), he wished to start an ashram foundation in conformity with the traditions of sannyasa in India.

March 21, 1950, the feast of St.Benedict, he and Fr. Henri Le Saux (Swami Abhishiktananda) settled in Saccidananda Ashram, Shantivanam (the forest of peace), at the sacred river Kavery in South India. He took the name Parama Arubi Ananda.

Fr Jules Monchanin, died at the Hospital Saint Antoine, Paris, 10 October 1957.

"...What I would like to see prevail among Christians and Hindus is not mutual ignorance and scorn, or facile syncretism which smoothes down rough edges and reduces everything to a rather empty moralism, but instead a real philosophical emulation and especially an emulation of holiness." 

Fr. Jules Monchin (taken from Page 98 -  "In Quest of the Absolute", The life and works of Jules Monchanin. Edited and translated by J.G. Weber.

 "The union of two saints who do not know each other is far more real and intimate than the union of one branch with another from the same tree, fed from the same sap;..."  (taken from Page 113-114 In Quest of the Absolute)

"Pray to the Holy Spirit that I will one day be a monk in a monastery born from the thought, heart, and contemplation of India and dedicated to the Holy Trinity. This is my constant thought and my one essential wish..."  -( from a letter written to a nun shortly before departing for India) -(taken from Page 72 - "In Quest of the Absolute"

 

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