Canonized recently by Pope Francis, Charles de Foucauld was  from a very wealthy and noble family, a descendent of Crusaders, becoming a missionary after a dissolute life. 

Newsdesk (29/12/2023 10:53, Gaudium Press) Born in Strasbourg on September 16th, 1858 – the year of Our Lady’s apparitions at Lourdes – Charles de Foucauld was descended from Crusaders, from a very wealthy and noble family whose motto on their coat of arms was Jamais Arrière (‘Never Retreat’). He became a missionary after a dissolute life and adventures as a soldier and geographer. He died shortly after his 58th birthday – on December 1st, 1916, in southern Algeria, during the First World War – from a rifle bullet fired by an unknown Tuareg, whose criminal gang had taken over the place where Foucauld had built his precarious hermitage to live as a missionary.

The “Blue Men”

The Tuaregs, or “blue men” due to the curious colour of their skin stained by the indigo with which they dye their clothes, are a nomadic people who currently number around three hundred thousand (300,000) souls. Smugglers, slave traders and adventurers crossing the Sahara in long caravans in search of pasture and water from the oases for their herds, while taking handicrafts and products from one place to another. Even today, they are organised into tribal clans that are extremely hostile, even towards each other. They were animists and magicians, and were converted to Islam when the Arabs of Egypt began to spread around 700 AD across North Africa to what is now called the Maghreb, which means “west” to the peoples of the Near and Middle East.

Charles de Foucauld wanted to convert these mysterious and warlike people to Christianity more by the example of his dedicated, hospitable and hard-working life than by preaching. So he settled in an oasis, built his hermitage and began to learn their customs and language, translating their proverbs and songs into French. He wrote an illustrated Tuareg-French, French-Tuareg dictionary. He also translated the Holy Gospels from French into their native language and composed a catechism for them in that language.

What prompted this worldly rich man, military aristocrat and geographer to renounce his adventurous and high life to become a humble monk in a stark white habit? He designed an emblem for this congregation that he had dreamed of, which consisted of a heart and a cross above it, reminiscent of the coat of arms used by the Vandeans and Chouans of western France when they rose up against the religious persecution of the French Revolution.

Resembling Christ

Charles de Foucauld transformed himself in such a way that, at the end of his days, his countenance resembled that of a native Algerian with a simple, wheat-coloured appearance and a gentle gaze that in no way resembled that of a descendant of the French nobility.

His tanned physiognomy, his beard and the features of his face made him look a little like St. Francis of Assisi; the result of having been taken over by Christ, his prototype and model of holiness, who also bore on His divine face the traces of the sun and the wind of the Judean deserts.

By Antonio Borda

Compiled by Roberta MacEwan