Blessed Charles de Foucauld

Poorest amoung the Poor

On 15 May 2022, Charles de Foucauld will be canonised by the Pope. Often unknown, this humble saint has struck those who approached him by his kindness and selfabnegation.

Charles Eugène de Foucauld, Viscount Foucauld, was born into a French noble family, in Strasbourg, 15 September 1858, with an apparently easy life ahead.

Sadly, at the age of six, having lost both his parents, he and his threeyearold sister were sent to Viscountess Clothilde de Foucauld, their grandmother, who also died soon after. Finally, the children were put in the loving care of Colonel de Morlet and his wife, their maternal grandparents.

In 1878, after two years of study at the Military School, he became an officer, a rich officer, since his grandfather had just died and left him a huge inheritance. He was just 20. For several years, he found his pleasure in debauchery. “I eat a lot,” he admitted, “and don’t think much.” In October 1880 he was appointed to Algeria, a country which he found interesting; but, because of an affair with a woman and insubordination, he lost his post and was back to France.

In 1882, he resigned from the Army, and went to Algeria again. He was also fascinated by Morocco, which, at the time, was closed to Europeans; however, determined as he was to enter the country, he disguised himself as a Jewish Rabbi and lived there like one. He watched and noted all his observations, collecting treasures of information on the culture, the geography, the economy and the people. He was discreet, but managed to create bonds with Jewish families who asked him to bless their children – which he did with no scruples. On 23 May 1884, he returned to Algeria, a poor Jewish beggar, but rich with his discoveries as an explorer. These enthused the scientists of the time: he had travelled 3000 kms in an unknown country. He had suddenly become a hero!

Interestingly, he was not carried away by his fame and went back to France: he was 28 years old. While he had his work published, he met Christian people who inspired him to go to Church.

Then God accomplished what seemed impossible: Charles’s conversion. “As soon as I came to believe there was a God, I understood that I could not do otherwise than live only for him.” In January 1890, he joined the Cistercian

Trappists. Still, he longed to live among the poor, saying he didn’t like to travel through life in 1st class while his Lord and Master had travelled in 3rd. In response to this desire, his Superior General sent him to Nazareth, where he served as a domestic in the Poor Clares’ Convent.

Finally, in 1900, he was ordained priest in Saumur (France) and started nourishing the dream of founding a little Community: The Little Brothers of Jesus, based on Prayer, the Eucharist and imitation of the life of Jesus in Nazareth. He went back to Algeria, where he lived in a hermitage helping the Tuaregs, whose language he had learned in order to understand them and their needs. He built up real friendships with them and with black slaves.

“I want all the people here, Christians, Muslims, Jews, nonbelievers, to look on me as their brother, the universal brother. They begin to call my house ‘the fraternity’ and this makes me happy.”

Poor among the poor, he did not try to convert, but only to love: “My apostolate must be an apostolate of kindness”.

In 1916, his assassination made him a Martyr, respected and revered, although, at the time of his death, he had no real followers, only many, many friends. Charles’s writings, letters, notes, meditations have now been widely spread and the Congregation of the Little Brothers of Jesus, founded in 1933, is based on his spirituality. Started in Algeria, the Congregation has now reached 33 countries.

“Truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces much fruit.” John 12:24.

MarieHelene Cook

Charles de Foucauld’s Hermitage in Tamanrasset

A Miracle

The miracle, leading to the announcement of Charles’s Canonisation,

was due to his intercession in 2016, when a young roofer, 23, had fallen 15 metres from a school chapel in Saumur. Part of a wooden pew, as he landed, had pierced his abdomen. Doctors state that, from such a height, this impact should have caused all abdomen organs to burst.

The incident occurred on the eve of the hundredth anniversary of the death of Charles de Foucauld, on December 1, 1916. The roofer, also called Charle (with no ‘s’ at the end), was working for a small building company. The manager, François Asselin, who was away in Paris when he heard about the accident, tried in vain to get in touch with Charle’s family and the hospital. François, who was a practising Catholic, was much distressed and phoned Fr Artarit, the parish priest of the BlessedCharlesdeFoucauld church in Saumur; the latter encouraged him to pray. In both despair and hope, François spent the night in prayer. The next morning, he managed to contact Charle’s mother, who told him the young man was safe.

Three days later, François visited Charle in hospital and found the young man sitting in his bed. He learned that, after his fall, Charles had got himself up and walked about 50 metres, impaled by the big piece of wood. After medical investigation, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome unanimously recognised the validity of the miracle.

Lycée St Louis’s Chapel from where the young worker fell.

“In a time of great sorrow, not knowing where to take refuge, fearing to be misled by the evil one, I remembered the heart of the Mother of Perpetual Help, and I placed myself in her care, like her child, like her property. I begged her, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, to carry me, as she carried Jesus when he was a child, and to make me become, not what I would like to become, but what she herself would like for the greater glory of her Son, according to his will, according to what she read in his heart.”

Charles de Foucauld