Little Brothers & Sisters of Jesus Caritas

Bl. Charles de Foucauld was born in Strasbourg, on September 15,1858. He was martyred outside his hermitage on December 1, 1916 by Arab rebels. Bl. Charles was a priest and ascetic, who inspired the founding of the founding of many small religious communities.

Bl. Charles grew up in an aristocratic family and entered the Saint-Cyr Military Academy in 1876. He later was a French army officer in Algeria but left the army in 1882 and went as an explorer to Morocco. He first discovered the call of God while witnessing the devout prayer life of Muslim men and women. Their faith inspired him to take his own faith more seriously.

Bl. Charles renounced his title and wealth and in 1890 he joined the Trappist order. He left in the Trapist in 1897 to follow an undefined religious vocation amongst the materially poor. He went to the Holy Land and became a gardener for a group of nuns. It was then suggested to him that he be ordained. He returned to Algeria and lived a virtually eremetical life.

He first settled in Beni Abbes, near the Moroccan border, building a small hermitage for ‘adoration and hospitality’, which soon became the ‘Fraternity’. For Charles wished to be, and was seen to be, a “brother” to each and every visitor, whatever their religion, ethnic origin or social status. Later he moved to be with the Touareg people, in Tamanghasset in southern Algeria. This region is the central part of the Sahara with the Ahaggar Mountains (the Hoggar) immediately west of there. Bl. Charles used the highest point, the Assekrem, as a place of retreat. Living close to the Touareg, and sharing their life and hardships, he made a ten-year study of their language and cultural traditions. He learned the language and worked on a dictionary and grammar. His dictionary manuscript was published posthumously in 4 volumes and has become known among Berberologues for its rich and apt descriptions. He formulated the idea of founding a new religious order, which only became a reality after his death, under the name of the Little Brothers of Jesus.

He was shot to death by passing Arab rebels on December 1, 1916 outside his Tamanrasset compound against the general background of uprising against the French colonial power and the world war. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on November 13,2005 and is considered a martyr of the Church.

Though Charles died alone and without the immediate fellowship of others sharing his practice of the life of "Jesus at Nazareth" and hospitality in the desert of Algeria, he was successful at inspiring and help to organize a "confraternity" within France to support his idea. This organization called the Association of the Brothers and Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus consisted of lay and ordained members totaling 48 people at the time of his death. It was this group and specifically the efforts of Louis Massignon, the world famous scholar of Islam, and a best selling biography written by René Bazin in 1921 - "La vie de Charles de Foucauld explorateur en Maroc, eremite du Sahara" - who kept his intuitions alive and inspired the family of lay and religious "fraternities" that include: The Little Brother and Sisters of Jesus Caritas, Jesus Caritas Secular Priests, the Little Brothers of Jesus, the Little Sisters of Jesus among a total of 19 different congregations. . Though originally French in origin, these groups have expanded to include many cultures and languages on all continents.

At Bl. Charles de Foucauld’s death, it would appear that he was a failure. He died in 1916 leaving behind no established community and not being able to brag of a single convert during his entire ministry in the Sahara. The community he inspired was founded at the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre, Paris, in September 1933 by five seminarians from Issy-les-Moulineaux. They first took the name of Little Brothers of Solitude. With the assistance of Louis Massignon and with a temporary Superior named René Voillaume, they left Paris to found their first 'fraternity' in El Abiadh Sidi Cheikh in southern Oran at the edge of the Saharan desert. There they took on their present name the Little Brothers of Jesus and the religious 'habit' of grey cloak embroidered with the 'Jesus Caritas' symbol of a heart with an outcropped cross and modified nomadic garb. Drawn by the desert experience of monastic austerity and the Islamic culture of the sub-Sahara, the first years were marked by tracing the intuitions of Foucauld, settling and adapting his original 'Directory' or Rules, and forming novitiates for their first generation of a fledgling order.
	AfterWorld War II, the members decided to move toward greater witness outside of Algeria into the post-war world. By modifying their original monastic idea to fit the new circumstances they split into small fraternities based on the simple rule of adoration of the Eucharist and prayer in their dwellings and a life of ordinary labor, friendship, and solidarity with those they choose to live and work amongst. The new order became somewhat linked to the Worker Priest movement in France at that time for the non-traditional setting of religious life apart from mission, education, pastoral service, or evangelization before Vatican II. The Catholic Worker Movement in North America, though from a different perspective, also shared similar expressions of alternative approaches to consecrated lifestyles of work and prayer among those outside the immediate embrace of church and society.
They have since grown to a number of around 250 brothers, some ordained priests, and live in small communities of two or three in some 40 different countries around the world. They are one of a family of Jesus' at Nazareth communities, lay and religious, who build on the original inspiration of Brother Charles of the Desert which includes the Little Sisters of Jesus,Jesus Caritas, and theLittle Brothers of the Gospel.They were officially recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as a congregation ‘of pontifical right’ in 1968, a recognition confirmed in 1987, after a revision of their Constitutions. The evangelical councils of poverty, chastity and obedience are accepted by each brother and a period of 'formation' lasting several years include a pre-novitiate period of postulancy, novitiate, and some years at formal studies including Christology, Scripture, Theology, Philosophy among other subjects are encouraged - all ongoing within a fraternity setting and set around workaday living.
Though originally consisting of mostly French speaking members, today the 'Fraternity' as it is commonly known, is inclusive of many different languages and cultural viewpoints in its contemporary settings. The Little Brothers and Sisters of Jesus Caritas like the earlier communities, follow the three evangelical councils of poverty, chastity, and obedience. We are also comprised of intentionally small community houses which are in the midst of the materially poor or in places of solitude. The charism is evangelization through friendship.