ST CHARLES DE FOUCAULD | KAIROS GLOBAL | JULY 2024

Author: Benita Elissa Benny

You can call him a second Saint Augustine of sorts. A man who lived the worldliest life you can think of, whose life took a complete 360-degree turn, St Charles de Foucauld was a French soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnographer, Catholic priest, and hermit. 

He hailed from a family of soldiers, with many relatives taking part in the Crusades. He was born as the second son of Élisabeth de Morlet and Viscount Édouard de Foucauld de Pontbriand, a forest inspector, in 1858. His sister Maria was born three years later, but unfortunately, both his parents passed away by the time he turned six, leaving him and his sister in the care of their grandfather. By the time he was fifteen, less than a year after his First Communion, Charles had become an agnostic. This was in part due to a rhetoric class and the strict Jesuit boarding school that he studied at. In 1878, his grandfather died. Love for the old man had prevented Charles from straying from the way of the Lord, but at his death, Charles began to ‘live.’

He joined military school while continuing to live extravagantly, in party and pleasure. He was made a soldier; however, after a few skirmishes with the military, he quit and went on a risky geographic exploration in Morocco, Sahara and Palestine. During his stay in Morocco, he was impressed by the Muslim community’s faith and devotion to religion. He began to pray, ‘My God, if you exist, let me come to know you.’ 

Slowly and surely, God began to manifest himself to Charles in the form of strong Catholic family and friends. He returned to faith, and upon realising that he could not do anything but live for God, he became a Trappist monk in France and Syria. Later, realising his true vocation, he began to lead a life of prayer and meditation alone, near a convent of the Poor Clares in Nazareth.

He was ordained a priest in 1901 and continued to live in immense poverty, meditation and prayer. He wore a simple garment with a cross at the heart, caring for injured soldiers and locals. 

Little Brother Charles of Jesus, as he called himself, wrote down a plan for two religious orders. At the time of Brother Charles' death, his designs for new religious orders had not borne visible fruit. Within twenty years after his death, three congregations emerged that derived their inspiration and rules from Charles de Foucauld. These Little Brothers of Jesus, Little Sisters of the Sacred Heart, and Little Sisters of Jesus live in small groups all over the world, preaching not by words but by actions.  

On 1 December 1916, de Foucauld was dragged from his hermitage by a group of tribal raiders led by El Madani ag Soba. They intended to kidnap de Foucauld. However, they were interrupted by the French Camel Corps. One startled bandit shot de Foucauld through the head, killing him instantly. His friendship with the local Muslims can be proven by the fact that a group of Muslims buried him the morning after his death. The 1941–42 class of the Saint-Cyr military academy in France was named after him. 

Foucauld was beatified by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins on 13 November 2005, on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI. He was canonised on 15 May 2022, by Pope Francis. His feast is on 1st December. A 1936 French film, The Call of Silence was based on his life.

‘Oh! My God, how much your hand was upon me and yet how little I was aware of it! How good you are! How good you are! How you protected me! How you covered me with your wings when I did not even believe in your existence!’

‘My Lord Jesus, you have put into me this tender and growing love for you, this taste for prayer, this faith in your Word, this deep feeling of the duty of almsgiving, this desire to imitate you, this thirst to make the greatest sacrifice for you that I can make.’

‘The Eucharist is Jesus, it is all of Jesus.’

‘When you love, you feel like speaking the whole time with the one you love, or at least you want to look at him without ceasing. Prayer is nothing else. It is the familiar meeting with our Beloved. We look at Him, we tell Him we love Him, we rejoice to be at His feet.’

‘Sacred Heart of Jesus, thank you for this first tabernacle in Tuareg land! May it be the prelude to others and the announcement of the salvation of many souls! Sacred Heart of Jesus, radiate from the depths of this tabernacle on the people who are around you without knowing you! Enlighten, direct, save these souls you love!’

‘This Africa, this Algeria and these millions of non-Christians cry so much for the holiness which alone can obtain their conversion. Pray for the Good News to arrive and that these late arrivals might finally present themselves at Jesus’ manger and take their turn in adoring him.’

‘My apostolate must be the apostolate of goodness. If someone were to ask why I am gentle and good, I must say, ‘because I am the servant of someone who is far better than me.’