December 1 : Saint Charles de Foucauld

Charles was raised by his grandfather in Strasbourg, France, after his parents died. He was baptized but never really believed in the Christian life. He became an officer in the French army. De Foucauld resigned from the military at age 23 and set off on a dangerous exploration of Morocco. Contact with strong Muslim believers there and he began to repeat to himself: “My God, if you exist, let me come to know you.” He returned to France and, with the guidance of a priest, came back to his Catholic faith in 1886 at age 28. De Foucauld realized a vocation to “follow Jesus in his life at Nazareth” during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He was a Trappist monk in France and Syria for seven years. He also lived as a hermit for a period near a convent of Poor Clares in Nazareth. He was ordained a priest in 1901 at age 43 and left for northern Africa to serve among the Tuareg people, a nomadic ethnic group, saying he wanted to live among “the furthest removed, the most abandoned.” He wanted all who drew close to him to find in him a brother, “a universal brother.” He dreamed of establishing two religious orders—the Little Brothers and the Little Sisters who would live their lives imitating Christ. All during his years away from the army, Charles had remained friends with some of the soldiers. He allowed them to store their weapons in his hermitage. Some people suspected Charles of being a spy and the Rebel forces killed Father Charles in 1916. Father Charles de Foucauld was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 and canonized in 2022.