Charles de Foucauld’s Eucharistic Procession Through the Sahara Desert

The National Catholic Register ^ | 9/29/19 | KV Turley

[marshmallow]

“Father de Foucauld, since his conversion, never for one day stopped thinking of that hour after which there are no others...”

Immediately upon the outbreak of the Great War, Charles de Foucauld wished to return to France from the Sahara desert. He desired to rejoin the French army as a military chaplain. The bishop under whose authority he lived instructed him to stay where he was at Tamanrasset, a small village in modern-day Algeria.

De Foucauld obeyed what was later to prove a death sentence.

France’s empire in 1914 extended to large parts of North Africa – and that empire was now under attack. The Ottoman Empire, fighting alongside Prussia, called for the expulsion of all infidels from the lands of Islam and a restoration of the Caliphate. Some Saharan tribes responded to this call for jihad encouraged in so doing by the Muslim religious order known as the Senussi. De Foucauld lived far from French military aid in a makeshift hermitage. In the early hours of Dec. 1, 1916, an armed gang of fanatical Senussi set out to find the Christian hermit.

De Foucauld was indeed a long way from home. He was born at Strasbourg on Sept. 15,1858 into a wealthy French aristocratic family. An unhappy childhood followed. By the time he was 6 years old he was an orphan. Subsequently, at school he learned little. He did become an agnostic, however. Eventually, his family enlisted him in the military, in the hope of disciplining the unruly youth; but this hope proved futile. The endless hours of barrack life only appeared to make matters worse: his attention now focused solely on pleasure. To his family, he was fast becoming an embarrassment; to the military he was a liability.

Eventually, de Foucauld was dismissed in disgrace from the army: when.............

[Romulus]

Thanks for this.

[Shark24]

Beautiful, thanks. As good as I will read anything today. God bless!

[pbear8]

Truly inspiring!

[Falconspeed]

Powerful. Poor father. Ignored the advice of French leaders and killed at a young age. Amazing how a saint’s prayers, such as the prayers of Fr. Charles, cannot remove the apostasy of Saracens.