Paul François Charles Demade was born to a French family living in Comines, Belgium, on 13 August 1863.
[1] He was educated at the Minor Seminary, Roeselare, where he became friends with Albrecht Rodenbach, and at the diocesan college in Kortrijk, before studying medicine at the Catholic University of Leuven.
[1] His interest in literature was sparked by reading Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, and he began contributing to the society pages of Le Patriote under the pen name Jean Suis.
Besides his medical profession and literary activity he also engaged in political discussions, coming into the orbit of Henry Carton de Wiart, Jules Renkin and other proponents of Christian democracy.
[1] From 1901 to 1924 he was the editor of a popularising medical review, Jardin de la santé (the garden of health) that he had founded himself.