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Home > Ministries > Charles de Foucauld |
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Home > Ministries > Charles de Foucauld |
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 Read selections from the writings of Charles de Foucauld on key themes of his spirituality:
Charles frequently meditated on what Jesus might say to him personally, as indicated in some of the excerpts. Charles was beatified in 2005: Books about Charles can be ordered from our bookstore: |
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Charles
de Foucauld Charles de Foucauld was born in
Strasbourg, France on September 15, 1858. He was orphaned as a
child and raised by his maternal grandparents. The recipient of
a large inheritance, Charles lived a worldly life that resulted
in the gradual loss of his faith. His contact with devout Muslims stirred Charles' heart:
Back in Paris, Charles felt a need to renew his own religious commitments. On October 29, 1886, Charles spoke with Father Huvelin at St. Augustine's Church. After confessing his sins and receiving holy communion, Charles experienced a new horizon opening in his life:
Fr. Huvelin encouraged Charles to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The journey inspired Charles to imitate the "hidden life" of Jesus of Nazareth. This was the life Jesus lived before His public ministry, a life characterized by silence, obscurity, humble work, domestic charity, and simple joys. The idea of "Nazareth," of finding holiness in the everyday, became a cornerstone of Charles' spirituality. His understanding of Nazareth would evolve throughout his life. Charles entered a Trappist monastery, but after several years realized that his vocation was leading him elsewhere. He lived for a while as a gardener and handyman for a convent of Poor Clare nuns in Nazareth. His search to live the hidden life of Jesus eventually led him back to the Sahara Desert. In 1901, Charles was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Viviers in France and received permission to establish a hermitage in Beni-Abbes in Algeria. He later built a second hermitage far to the south in Tamanrasset, a tiny settlement in a remote region of volcanic mountains called the Hoggar. Out in the desert, Charles led an austere life, marked by prayer and an unassuming ministry of friendship to the nomadic tribes of Bedouin Muslims known as the Tuaregs. To them, he became known as a "Marabout," a holy man. Charles welcomed all who came to his outpost: the indigenous people, French soldiers, and anyone else traveling across the forbidding landscape of the deep Sahara. He offered whatever charitable assistance his means allowed. His motivation was simply to imitate the generous love of Jesus.
Charles also voiced his protest against slavery and other acts of injustice inflicted upon the poor of the desert. Charles hoped to start a new religious community based on the life of Nazareth. He wrote a basic rule for the "Little Brothers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus," but he had no followers during his lifetime. His life would have a much greater impact in years to come, inspiring religious orders and secular fraternities around the world. On December 1, 1916, Charles was shot and killed by a young member of a rebel Tuareg tribe. In a notebook he carried with him, Charles had written:
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