He lived among the Tuareg in the Algerian desert. He built a friendship and mutual trust with them through deep human solidarity. “In the desert, we are never alone.”
His missionary zeal cost him his life. On the evening of 1 December 1916, Brother Charles was taken hostage by a group of bandits in the Hoggar oasis of Tamanrasset (central Sahara). In a moment of panic, one of the bandits shot him at close range.
Charles de Foucauld was born on 15 September 1858 in Strasbourg, in the province of Alsace, on the border between France and Germany. The Foucauld family, rich and aristocratic, had a long military tradition. At the age of six, he lost both his father and mother. During his difficult teenage years, he lost his faith. At 22, he became an army officer and was sent to Algeria. He was excited by the discovery of new horizons.
Three years later, he left the army and undertook a risky exploration of Morocco. Several times during his expedition, he was offered protection and hospitality by highly religious Muslims. They were to become his friends. On his return to France, he was deeply touched by the warm and respectful welcome he received from his family, especially his cousin Marie de Bondy. His search for meaning began. Providence led him to meet Abbé Huvelin, a priest who would become his father and friend.
In October 1886, at the age of 28, he experienced his conversion. A pilgrimage to the Holy Land revealed to him the person of Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God, who shared our humanity and chose to live the obscure existence of a village carpenter for 30 years. He perceived in this poverty and humility a vocation addressed to him. He wrote: “I have a great longing to live at last the kind of life I caught a glimpse of when I walked the streets of Nazareth… streets that had been trodden by the feet of Our Lord, Himself a poor carpenter who lived in obscurity and humiliation.”
Charles had found his direction, but the journey was to be long and difficult. He spent seven years as a Trappist monk and then four years as a hermit in Nazareth, living next to a monastery of the Poor Clares. These were years of prayer and silence.
He left Nazareth for good in August 1900 and spent several months in the abbey of Notre Dame des Neiges (Our Lady of the Snows) to prepare for the priesthood. Ordained on 9 June 1901 by the Bishop of Viviers, he left for Algeria a few months later and settled in an oasis in the Sahara called Beni Abbes, near the Moroccan border.
This time, he didn’t build a hermitage but a fraternity, and after three years in Beni Abbes, Brother Charles heard about the Tuareg. They were a poor group of people who lived in a place so remote that it was difficult to reach them. In 1904, some officer friends offered him the opportunity to travel with them to meet them. And so, he set off again. He spent more than three months trekking through the desert to reach the Hoggar mountains, where small nomadic groups of Tuareg roamed.
From the beginning, he felt an inner urge to make his home among them. But these tribes were deeply suspicious of their French occupiers, and it would be a year before their leader, Moussa Ag Amastane, permitted Brother Charles to settle in Tamanrasset. Alone and defenceless, he trusted their offer of hospitality, and within a few days, he had built a small, rudimentary earthen house to live in. He immediately began a passionate study of their language and showed a keen interest in their culture.
The First World War broke out in 1914, and violence spread to the remote solitude of the Hoggar. There was widespread rebellion by many tribes against the French occupation. Insecurity grew. Brother Charles was aware that he was in an increasingly dangerous environment. He was offered refuge in a French military post but refused. He couldn’t bring himself to leave those who had given him hospitality for over ten years.
Friendship and mutual trust had grown over the years, and he felt bound to the Tuareg people by a deep human solidarity. Ever since he had been captivated by Jesus of Nazareth, he had tried to follow in His footsteps and live in imitation of Him. He deeply wanted to become like Him in His passion and death, to give proof of the greatest love.
One night in December 1916, he was assassinated by desert bandits. He knew of the risk, but he decided to remain to the end among his friends. He was beatified on 13 November 2005 and canonised on 15 May 2022 in Rome.
One of his best-known prayers is his Prayer of Abandonment, which captures his spirit of simplicity and humble trust in God:
“Father, I abandon myself into Your hands, do with me what You will. Whatever You may do, I thank You: I am ready for all, I accept all. Let only Your will be done in me and in all Your creatures. I wish no more than this, O Lord. Into Your hands, I commend my soul; I offer it to You with all the love of my heart; For I love You, Lord, and so need to give myself: To surrender myself into Your hands without reserve and with boundless confidence. For You are my Father.”
