Marthe Mahieu-De Praetere, Kurisumala - Francis Mahieu Acharya: a Pioneer of Christian Monasticiam in India (trans.Van Winkle, Susan) Pp. xv + 394, Paperback; a) Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 2007, ISBN 978-0-87907-614-6, $79.95; b) Asian Trading Corporation, Bangalore/ Sopanam, Kottayam, India, 2008, ISBN 81-7086-470-4, IR 200.
Bernard
Kilroy
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
George A. Kiraz
James E. Walters
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Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
2008
Vol. 11, No. 2
For this publication, a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
license has been granted by the author(s), who retain full
copyright.
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv11n2prkilroy
Bernard Kilroy
Marthe Mahieu-De Praetere, Kurisumala - Francis Mahieu Acharya: a Pioneer of Christian Monasticiam in India (trans.Van Winkle, Susan) Pp. xv + 394, Paperback; a) Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 2007, ISBN 978-0-87907-614-6, $79.95; b) Asian Trading Corporation, Bangalore/ Sopanam, Kottayam, India, 2008, ISBN 81-7086-470-4, IR 200.
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol11/HV11N2PRKilroy.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute,
vol 11
issue 2
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies is an electronic journal dedicated to the study
of the Syriac tradition, published semi-annually (in January and July) by Beth
Mardutho: The Syriac Institute. Published since 1998, Hugoye seeks to offer the
best scholarship available in the field of Syriac studies.
Syriac Studies
Francis Mahieu Acharya
Kurisumala
Biography
File created by XSLT transformation of original HTML encoded article.
[1] The name
of Francis Mahieu Acharya (1912-2002) is not new to
Hugoye; his work has been praised by both the Director
of SEERI (St Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute, S
India)
Thekeparampil, Jacob , July
2002.
and Professor Sebastian Brock
Para. 31, 'The Contribution of Departed
Syriacists', 1997-2006, ,
January 2007.
who also noted this
biography published in its original French in 2001 (without
ISBN). However, the English translation now opens up its
availability, especially because the Indian edition is at an
Indian price.
[2] Abbot
Francis's main significance is to have extended the use of
Syriac liturgical spirituality in his still living monastery of
Kurisumala (S India), including with the first English
translation
Prayer with the Harp of the Spirit: The prayer
of the Asian Churches, Kurisumala Ashram, Vagamon, Kerala
685 503 (Nil ISBN); Vol I [Shhimo - Weekday Common Prayer] (1980)
3rd Rev 1983; Vol II [Annunication to Ephipany]
(1982) 2nd Rev 1999; Vol III [Fast to Resurrection]
(1985) tbp 2008; Vol IV [season of Resurrection to Exaltation
of the Cross] 1986. e-mail <kurisumala@yahoo.com>.
of the West Syrian Penqitho published
by the Dominican Press in Mosul, Iraq 1886-96 as well as a
later translation and commentary of the The Ritual of the
Clothing of Monks in the Antiochean Tradition.
Trans. from Book of Priestly Rites
(Ktobo d-takse kumroye) Sharfeh, Lebabon, 1952: series
Moran Etho 13 (SEERI, Kottayam, 1999).
[3] Although
the biography does not tell us more about the texts, if read
selectively it is useful in showing how they came to be created
and used in their present liturgical context, which appears to
be exceptional.
[4] Francis
and his English Benedictine monk collaborator Fr Bede Griffiths
began in 1956 by chanting the Syriac Shhimo Common Prayer (subsequently translated
into prose by Bede and later by Francis into rhythmic chant)
but found the 'Pampakuda' (Kerala) edition of the
Penqitho for Sundays and feast days too abbreviated.
In 1961, after unproductive searches in Kerala, he set off on
an unyielding hunt in Beirut, Aleppo, Damascus and Jerusalem,
nowhere it seems finding the full Syriac Penqitho in
or out of use. He finally located it under a layer of dust in a
store-room back in Mosul, Iraq where the new Syrian Catholic
Bishop Benni (now Archbishop) was happy to sell him the entire
remainder stock of seven sets of seven folio volumes, because
(he said) there was no longer any call for it. Neither, nor the
biographer either, apparently knew of the parallel interest by
Chorepiscopo (later Bishop) Boutros Gemayel of the Maronite
Church who published a selective Penqitho translation
in French in Beirut during (I surmise) the 1970's, which was
translated into English and published in USA during the
1980's
Gemayel, Boutros (Chor-Bishop) Prayer of the
Faithful According to the Maronite Liturgical Year, St.
Maron Publications, Brooklyn NY, Vol I 1982, Vol II 1983, Vol
III 1985, trans. with adaptation from Les Prières
des Croyants selon l'Année Liturgique Maronite,
Beirut, nd - collated from texts at Bkerke and 'various ancient
monasteries'.
.
[5] The
Kurisumala English translation is because the Kerala monks,
whose mother tongue is Malayalam, use English as a second
language because it is the lingua franca of India;
learning Syriac proved a real obstacle. Beyond the Syriac text
the value has been its spirituality: a) being language of the
heart; b) having a breviary not based so exclusively on the
Judaic Psalms of the Old Covenant (as in the West) but on hymns
and prayers which celebrate the New; c) being more integrated
within the 'Economy of Salvation'; d) which in turn is
reinforced by the dramatic unfolding of the Syrian Orthodox (or
Syro-Malankara in the case of Kurisumala) liturgical
calendar.
[6] The
systemic inter-connectedness may not emerge through the
biography, partly because of Francis' involvement with
Hindu-Christian theology and partly because Francis' pivotal
but unpublished Lectionary, which contains the adapted
calendar, is not mentioned, though the unpublished Menology
with its many Eastern saints is. However, there is ample
compensation in the description of the extraordinary love
affair which Francis had with the Eastern Fathers, especially
the Syrians, from his first years as a novice Trappist monk in
his native Belgium.
[7] The most
significant feature of the spirituality of Francis was the
steady revelation of an Asian Christ, which displaced for him
the classical western versions of the Greco-Roman tradition in
which he was brought up. Even though his Asian Christ was an
amalgam of Middle East and Indian spirituality, the
significance lies in the vibrant originality of his monastic
foundation through the use of the Syrian transplant.
[8]
Unfortunately the biography does not speculate why the
influence of Kurisumala has been limited. It has not been
imitated elsewhere and the liturgical office is not used by any
other Community (so far as I know) although Francis
understandably hoped it would become an adaptable model for the
Asian Churches. Although many seminarians and Sisters are sent
to Kurisumala for an 'ashram experience' retreat, spontaneous
engagement is probably small, including among lay people. For
reasons which deserve to be explored, the spirituality of
Kurisumala has not enjoyed a fraction of the local appeal of
charismatic retreat centres or the cult of Blessed Alphonsa or
indeed Pentecostalism.
[9] There
are other features which are mentioned only in passing and
deserve the future interest of researchers, in particular his
translation and use of the Odes of Solomon as a
devotional work. Another is an unpublished manual for monk
novices on monasticism as a universal phenomenon, from its
cradle in ancient India and through its apparently spontaneous
apparition in Palestine, in parallel to Egyptian monasticism,
and subsequent flowering in Europe.
[10] Some
scholars may object to the Penqitho translation
because a) it is of two major Hours only (Ramsho and
Lilyo); b) it inserts some foreign feast days with new
text; c) a few psalms and prayers are trimmed; d) for the sake
of rhythm it may depart from the literal Syriac. All true. In
addition, Volume I, the Shhimo,
incorporates some Indian scriptures. Francis (and others) would
answer that there is no such thing as an authoritative text
because in the West Syrian tradition each monastery varied and
adapted; what matters is the core of living and authentic
spirituality.
_______
Notes