Anthony de Mello, also known as Tony de Mello (4 September 1931 – 2 June 1987), was an

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Jesuit

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

and psychotherapist. A spiritual teacher, writer, and

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, de Mello wrote several books on spirituality and hosted numerous

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s and conferences. He continues to be known for his storytelling which drew from the various

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traditions of both

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and

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and for introducing many people in the West to mindfulness-based practices he sometimes called "awareness prayer".

Beginnings

De Mello was the oldest of five children born to Frank and Louisa (née Castellino) de Mello. He was born in

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, on 4 September 1931. He was raised in a Catholic family and dreamed of one day joining the Jesuit order. At the age of 16, de Mello entered the

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at the seminary of Vinalaya on the outskirts of Bombay. In 1952, he was sent to Spain to study philosophy in Barcelona before undertaking ministry. He then returned to India to study theology at De Nobili College in Pune and was ordained to the priesthood in March 1961. After his return to India, he spent several years working in seminaries, and in 1968 he was made rector of the seminary of Vinalaya. De Mello was first attracted to the Jesuits for their strict discipline. Those who knew him during his earlier years in the order described him as somewhat conservative in his theology and reluctant to explore other religions. Some of his peers noted that his experience in Spain led him to broaden his perspective and to lose much of his rigidity.

Work

In 1972, he founded the Institute of Pastoral Counselling, later renamed the Sadhana Institute of Pastoral Counselling, in

Poona, India Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

. De Mello's first published book, ''Sadhana – A Way to God'', was released in 1978. It outlined a number of spiritual principles and "Christian exercises in

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form" inspired by the teachings of Saint Ignatius. It popularized the notion of "awareness prayer" in the United States for his readers and for those who attended his lectures.

Death

De Mello died of a

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in 1987, aged 55, in

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. Bill De Mello, a brother of Tony's, recounts in his book ''Anthony deMello: The Happy Wanderer'' that Tony's body was found by Fr. Frank Stroud, S.J. According to Fr. Stroud, de Mello's body was curled up in a fetal position. His official death certificate lists the immediate cause of his death as "Atherosclerotic coronary artery disease with recent thrombosis of left circumflex branch."

Posthumous controversy

In 1998, 11 years after de Mello's death, the

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under the leadership of its Cardinal-Prefect,

Joseph Ratzinger Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...

(who later became Pope Benedict XVI), conducted a review of de Mello's work and released a lengthy comment expressing theological concern that de Mello's books "are incompatible with the Catholic faith and can cause grave harm". The Indian magazine ''Outlook'' saw this as an attempt by Rome to undermine the clergy in Asia amid widening fissures between Rome and the Asian Church. De Mello's books are available in many Catholic bookshops in the West, but include the advisory that they were written in a multi-religious context and are not intended to be manuals on Christian doctrine.

Bibliography

A number of de Mello's works were published posthumously as collections or based on notes or recordings of his conferences. *''Sadhana: A Way to God'', 1978. *''Wake Up! Spirituality for Today,'' 90 minutes of talks given before a live audience *''The Song of the Bird'', Image, 1982. *''Wellsprings'', 1984. *''One Minute Wisdom'', Image, 1985. *''The Heart of the Enlightened'', Doubleday, 1987. *''Taking Flight'', Image, 1988. *''Awareness'', Image, 1990. *''Contact with God'',

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, 1991. *''The Way to Love'', 1992. *''One Minute Nonsense'', Loyola University Press, 1992 *''More One Minute Nonsense'', Loyola University Press, 1993 *''Call to Love'', Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 1996 *''Rooted in God'', St Pauls, 1997 *''Awakening'', Image, 2003. *''A Way to God for Today,''

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, 2007 *''Seek God Everywhere,'' Image, 2010 *''The Prayer of the Frog'' Vol. 1 & Vol. 2. In the English printing, these are titled ''Taking Flight'' and ''The Heart of the Enlightened''

Beginnings

Work

Death

Posthumous controversy

Bibliography

References

Further reading

Biography

Online resources

Multimedia