- Source: Dysmas de Lassus
Michel de Lassus Saint-Geniès (born March 30, 1956), better known as Dysmas de Lassus, is a French Catholic monk, the prior general of the Carthusians since 2014.
Biography
Born on March 30, 1956, the future religious was given the first name Michel. He is the son of Arnaud de Lassus, chief engineer of the maritime industry, member of Cité catholique, and founder of Action Family and School and has six brothers, one of whom became a Carmelite in the convent of Créteil, with the name of Sister Aude of the Virgin Mary.
Michel de Lassus entered the Charterhouse at the age of 20 and took the name of Dysmas, in reference of Penitent thief of the Gospel. In 1990, he became the master of novices at the Grande Chartreuse before being elected, on October 1, 2012, prior of the Chartreuse de Portes.
On November 3, 2014, he was elected prior general by the monks of the Grande Chartreuse.
The following November 7, the Father Priors of all the Carthusians of the order confirmed this choice by their vote.
Dysmas de Lassus become the 74th successor of Saint Bruno at the head of the Carthusian Order, succeeding Dom François-Marie Valut, who resigned for health reasons.
He participated in the writing of Cardinal Robert Sarah's book, The Force of Silence, Against the Dictatorship of Noise, written with Nicolas Diat, and published in October 2016.
In March 2020, at éditions du Cerf, he published "Risques et dérives de la vie religieuse", offering diagnostic elements that will help measure the dangers of certain spiritual practices or the governance of religious communities. This work is prefaced by José Rodríguez Carballo, Secretary of the Congregation for institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
In March 2023, he announces that the company producing Chartreuse liqueur will cease its growth. The monks are still involved in the production.
Publications
Formation d'un jeune Père-Maître. La Grande Chartreuse. 1990. p. 41.
Remarques sur la tâche du Père-Maître. La Grande Chartreuse. 1997. p. 36.
Avec Augustin Devaux (1997). Le Projet de graduel de chœur. La Grande Chartreuse. p. 153.
De Lassus, Dysmas (2020). Risques et dérives de la vie religieuse [Abuses in the Religious Life and Path to Healing]. (foreword: José Rodríguez Carballo). Le Cerf. p. 446. ISBN 978-1644135341.
