Charles de Foucauld

De Foucauld's family was originally from the Périgord region of France and part of the old French nobility; their motto being Jamais arrière ("Never behind").[8] Several of his ancestors took part in the crusades,[9] a source of prestige within the French nobility. His great-great-uncle, Armand de Foucauld de Pontbriand, a vicar general and first cousin of the archbishop of Arles, Monseigneur Jean Marie du Lau d'Allemans, as well as the archbishop himself, were victims of the September massacres that took place during the French Revolution.[8] His mother, Élisabeth de Morlet, was from the Lorraine aristocracy[8] whilst his grandfather had made a fortune during the revolution as a republican.[10] Élisabeth de Morlet married the viscount Édouard de Foucauld de Pontbriand, a forest inspector, in 1855.[11]

On 17 July 1857, their first child Charles was born, and died one month later.[8] Their second son, whom they named Charles Eugène, was born in Strasbourg on 15 September 1858[11] in the family house on Place Broglie at what was previously mayor Dietrich's mansion, where La Marseillaise was sung for the first time, in 1792.[8]

A few months after his birth, his father was transferred to Wissembourg. In 1861, Charles was three and a half years old when his sister, Marie-Inès-Rodolphine, was born.[8] His profoundly religious mother educated him in the Catholic faith, steeped in acts of devotion and piety.[8] She died following miscarriage[11] on 13 March 1864, followed by her husband who suffered from neurasthenia, on 9 August.[8] The now orphaned Charles (age 6) and his sister Marie (age 3) were put in the care of their paternal grandmother, Viscountess Clothilde de Foucauld, who died of a heart attack shortly afterwards.[11][10]

The children were then taken in by their maternal grandparents, Colonel Beaudet de Morlet and his wife, who lived in Strasbourg. De Morlet, an alumnus of the École Polytechnique and engineering officer, provided his grandchildren with an affectionate upbringing. Charles wrote of him: "My grandfather whose beautiful intelligence I admired, whose infinite tenderness surrounded my childhood and youth with an atmosphere of love, the warmth of which I still feel emotionally."[10]

Charles pursued his studies at the Saint-Arbogast episcopal school, and went to Strasbourg high school in 1868.[11] At the time an introvert and short-tempered,[11] he was often ill and pursued his education thanks to private tuition.[8]

He spent the summer of 1868 with his aunt, Inès Moitessier, who felt responsible for her nephew. Her daughter, Marie Moitessier (later Marie de Bondy), eight years older than Charles, became fast friends with him.[11] She was a fervent churchgoer who was very close to Charles, sometimes acting as a maternal figure for him.[8]

In 1870 the de Morlet family fled the Franco-Prussian War and found refuge in Bern. Following the French defeat, the family moved to Nancy in October 1871.[8][11] Charles had four years of secular highschool left.[11] Jules Duvaux was a teacher of his,[11][8] and he bonded with fellow student Gabriel Tourdes.[11] Both students had a passion for classical literature,[10] and Gabriel remained, according to Charles, one of the "two incomparable friends" of his life.[10] His education in a secular school developed nurtured patriotic sentiment, alongside a mistrust for the German Empire.[11] His First Communion took place on 28 April 1872, and his confirmation at the hands of Monseigneur Joseph-Alfred Foulon in Nancy followed shortly thereafter.[10]

In October 1873, when he was 15, whilst in a Rhetoric class, he began to distance himself from the faith before becoming agnostic.[11] He later affirmed, "The philosophers are all in discord. I spent twelve years not denying and believing nothing, despairing of the truth, not even believing in God. No proof to me seemed evident."[12] This loss of the faith was accompanied by uneasiness; Charles found himself to be "all selfishness, all impiousness, all evil desire, I was as though distraught".[13][10]

On 11 April 1874, his cousin Marie married Olivier de Bondy.[11] A few months later, on 12 August 1874, Charles obtained his baccalauréat with the distinction "mention bien" (equivalent to magna cum laude).[11]

Charles was sent to the Sainte-Geneviève school (now located in Versailles), run by the Jesuits, at that time located in the Latin Quarter of Paris, in order to prepare the admission test for the Saint-Cyr Military Academy.[11] Charles was opposed to the strictness of the boarding school and decided to abandon all religious practice. He obtained his second baccalauréat in August 1875.[8] He led a dissipated lifestyle at that point in time and was expelled from the school for being "lazy and undisciplined"[14] in March 1876.[11]

He then returned to Nancy, where he studied tutoring whilst secretly perusing light readings.[11][8] During his readings with Gabriel Tourdes, he wanted to "completely enjoy that which is pleasant to the mind and body".[15][8] This reading introduced the two students to the works of Aristotle, Voltaire, Erasmus, Rabelais and Laurence Sterne.[10]

In June 1876, he applied for entrance to the Saint-Cyr Military Academy, and was accepted eighty-second out of four hundred and twelve.[8] He was one of the youngest in his class.[11] His record at Saint-Cyr was a mixed one and he graduated 333rd out of a class of 386.[16]

The death of Foucauld's grandfather and the receipt of a substantial inheritance, was followed by his entry into the French cavalry school at Saumur. Continuing to lead an extravagant life style, Foucauld was posted to the 4th Regiment of Chasseurs d'Afrique in Algeria. Bored with garrison service he travelled in Morocco (1883–84), the Sahara (1885), and Palestine (1888–89). While reverting to being a wealthy young socialite when in Paris, Foucauld became an increasingly serious student of the geography and culture of Algeria and Morocco. In 1885 the Societe de Geographie de Paris awarded him its gold medal in recognition of his exploration and research.[17]

On 14 January 1890, de Foucauld entered the Trappist monastery of Notre-Dame des Neiges, where he received, as a novice, the religious name Marie-Albéric on the feast of St. Alberic, 26 January. According to a plea which he sent to the abbot prior to his entrance in Notre-Dame des Neiges, after some months of novitiate Br. Marie-Albéric was sent to the abbey of La Trappe at Akbès on the Syrian-Turkish border.[18] But despite the strict life of the Trappists according to their vow of poverty, de Foucauld considered the life of the residents in the surrounding villages to be more miserable.

In 1897, after seven years, he therefore left the order began to lead a life of prayer near a convent of Poor Clares in Nazareth where he worked as a porter and servant.[19] After some time, it was suggested to him that he be ordained, so he returned to Akbès for some time in order to prepare for the ordination to the priesthood. On 9 June 1901, at the age of 43, he received the ordination in Viviers, France.

After that, he went to the Sahara in French Algeria and continued to live an heremitical lifestyle. At that time he adopted the religious name Charles of Jesus.[20] He first settled in Béni Abbès, near the Moroccan border, building a small hermitage for "adoration and hospitality", which he soon referred to as the "fraternity" and both himself and the future members as "little brothers" of Jesus.[21]

De Foucauld moved to be with the Tuareg people, in Tamanghasset in southern Algeria. This region is the central part of the Sahara with the Ahaggar Mountains (the Hoggar) immediately to the west. Foucauld used the highest point in the region, the Assekrem, as a place of retreat. Living close to the Tuareg and sharing their life and hardships, he made a ten-year study of their language and cultural traditions. He learned the Tuareg language and worked on a dictionary and grammar. His dictionary manuscript was published posthumously in four volumes and has become known among Berberologists for its rich and apt descriptions.

Tomb of Charles de Foucauld in El Ménia, Algeria

On 1 December 1916, de Foucauld was dragged from his hermitage by a group of tribal raiders led by El Madani ag Soba, who was connected with the Senussi Bedouin. They intended to kidnap de Foucauld. However they were interrupted by two Méharistes of the French Camel Corps. One startled bandit (15-year-old Sermi ag Thora) shot de Foucauld through the head, killing him instantly. The Méharistes were also shot dead.[22] The murder was witnessed by sacristan and servant Paul Embarek, an African Arab former slave liberated and instructed by de Foucauld.[23] The Islamic Tuareg people burying him the morning after his death is evidence of de Foucauld's friendship with them.[24]

The French authorities continued for years searching for the bandits involved. In 1943 El Madani fled French forces in Libya to the remote South Fezzan. Sermi ag Thora was apprehended and executed at Djanet in 1944.[25]

In April 1929, the mortal remains of Charles de Foucauld were transferred to the oasis of El Meniaa to a tomb in the cemetery near the local parish of St. Joseph.