Charles De Foucauld

^e>e(yidr) CHARLES DE FOUCAULD : NIHIL OBSTAT : C. SCHDT, S.T.D., Censor Deputatvs. IMPRIMATUR Edm. Can. Scrmont, Vicarius Gemralis. Westmonastf.rii, Die i6 Aprilis, 1923. CHARLES DE FOUCAULD HERMIT AND EXPLORER BY REN|E BAZIN TRANSLATED BY PETER KEELAN New York, Cincinnati, Chicago BENZIGER BROTHERS PRINTERS TO THE I PUBLISHERS OF BENZIGER'S MAGAZINE HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE | 1.9 2 3 B P Made and printed in Great Britain CONTENTS FAGB GLOSSARY - - - - - - vii I. HIS YOUTH ..---- 1 II. THE PRELIMINARIES OF THE JOURNEY - - - l6 1. THE DISGUISE AND THE FIRST STEPS - "I? 2. THE STORY OF .AIARDOCHEE ABI SERVUR - 23 III. THE EXPLORER - - - - ' "35 IV. HIS CONVERSION - - • - - 61 V. THE TRAPPIST - - - - - - 77 VI. NAZARETH AND JERUSALEM - - - - IIO - VII. CHARLES DE FOUCAULD A PRIEST—THE DESERT ROAD 1 36 VIII. BENI-ABBES - - - - - - IS© IX. TRAINING TOURS - - - - - 211 X. THE SETTLEMENT IN HOGGAR .... 23I XI. POETRY AND PROVERBS - - - . 273 XII. TAMANRASSET --.--. 280 APPENDIX -..-... 25^ GLOSSARY Abd Ennebi, servant of the Prophet. Abdjesu^ servant of Jesus. Ahal, social g-athering among- the Tuaregs. Aman, armistice. Amenokal, a noble elected chief over a confederation of tribes. Amrar, a subordinate chief under an Amenokal. Anaia, the pledged perpetual protection of a man or tribe. Baraquer, to kneel down (of camels). Belras, Turkish slippers. Ben, son. Berdis, reeds or rushes. Bled, country, but especially used of the back-country or hinter- land, the Saharan desert. Borj, blockhouse or fortified post. Burnous, an Arab cloak. Cai'd, judge of a town or village : see Khalifa. Casbah, chapel or citadel. Chambi, Chambaa, warlike plundering tribes like the Cossacks. Cheggar, cloth or linen. Debiha, the act of putting oneself under anaia. Diss, a reed or rush like an alfa. Douar, a village of tents, arranged in streets. Ethel, an atlee—a kind of tree. Fellagas, outlawed native factions hostile to the friendly natives under French protection. Gaila, midday heat, time of siesta. Gandourah, an Oriental sleeveless shirt-like garment. Guettaf, a whitish saltwort. Gum, band or troop ; escort of Arab chiefs ; also French com- manders in Africa. Hajj, a Musulman who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca. Harka, an expeditionary column. Harratins, a crossbreed of Arabs and negroes, between slaves and freemen, who work as labourers, without political status. Hartani, singular of Harratin. Imrad, equality, also a clan. Imzad, violin, with only one string. Jelabia, a cowl or hood. Jerjir, a flower, the stems of which are blown away by the winds of the desert. Kafer, infidel. Khalifa, Arab chief : the order is as follows : Caid, Khalifa, Cadi, Adel, Bachadel. Khaua, brotherhood or confraternity. viii GLOSSARY Khefis, a very composite food liked by Father de Foucauld (see p. 382). Khenif, a black burnous with a yellow moon. Khoja, a Mohammedan schoolmaster or teacher. KsAR, settled village, not movable like a douar. KsuR, same as above. LiTHAM, a blue bandage fastening the veils of the Multimin and other Tuaregs in place. Makhzen, an administrative district, or a troop recruited from such a district. Marabout, a Mohammedan name for a holy man or saint. Mehari, a racing camel or express camel. Mellah, a quarter set apart, as the Jewish quarter of a town. MoKHAZENi, a territorial coming from a makhzen. Multimin, veiled men of the time of the Crusades, probably ancestors of the Tuaregs. Nouader, locks (of hair). Rahla, a pack-saddle for camels. Razzia, a raid. Rezzu, an expedition, or band of a tribal faction. RuMis, " Romans," a general name applied by Moslems to European Christians. Sbaot, Feast of Weeks, corresponding with Pentecost. Shehada, the Musulman form of prayer. Sherif, a noble, a title of honour, a local governor. Shott, a shallow saline lake. SiDi, an African title of respect given by Musulmans to one in authority. SisiT, a long garment. Tamahak or Tamachek, the spoken Tuareg language. Tebbel, a war-drum. Thalebs, religious teachers of Islam. Tholba, same as Thalebs. TiFiNAR, the written Tuareg language. Wady, river or dry watercourse. Zaptie, a Turkish policeman. Zauia, house of an Arab chief and his dependents. Zeriba, an improvised stockade, usually of thorn-bushes. Zettet, a protector who gives anaia. CHARLES DE FOUCAULD CHAPTER I His Youth CHARLES EUGENE DE FOUCAULD, whose his- tory I shall try to relate, was born at Strasbourg on September 15, 185^8- He was not of Alsatian origin. His father, Francois Edouard, Viscount de Foucauld de Pontbriand, Deputy- Inspector of Forests, belonged to an ancient and noble family of Perigord, which gave saints to the Church and very good servants to France, and of which it is important that I should here say something, because the merit of ancestors, even unknown, even forgotten, continues to live in our blood and urges us to imitation. According to the genealogist Chabault, the name of Foucauld has been known since 970, an epoch in which Hugues de Foucauld, having given a part of his wealth to the Abbeys of Chancelade and of Saint-Pierre d'Uzerches, retired from the world, and, in order to prepare better for death, entered the monastery. One Bertrand de Foucauld, who set out for the Crusade with St. Louis, fell in the battle of Mansurah defending his King against the Musulmans. Another, Gabriel, was delegated by Francois H to espouse Mary Stuart by proxy. Jean, chamberlain to the Dauphin, assisted, near Jeanne d'Arc, at the coronation of Rheims. In several letters Henry IV called Jean III de Foucauld " his good and very trusty friend." In order to express still better his friend- ship for him he named him Governor of the Comt6 of Perigord and Vicomte of Limoges : "I can assure you, Monsieur de Lardimalie," he wrote to him, " I esteem you and your virtue, and I am as satisfied with you as you could " desire —a fine testimonial, which was worth a government and would last longer. Numerous other Foucaulds, in the course of time, were killed at the head of their company or their regiment, in France, Italy, Spain, or Germany, always in the service of France. But one of its greatest glories came to this 2 CHARLES DE FOUCAULD family from Armand de Foucauld de Pontbriand/ Canon of Meaux,^ Vicar-General to his cousin Jean-Marie du Lau, Prince Archbishop of Aries. He was a man whose charity was very great, who distributed to the poor the larger part of his income, and " frequented only his church and the hospitals."^ Now this income was considerable—not that he had inherited it, he a son of a younger son and fifth of eleven children ; but two years before the Revolution he had been endowed by the King with the usufruct of the Abbey of Solignac in Limoges. In 1790 the Archbishop of Aries addressed to his clergy the celebrated Exposition des principes de la Constitution civile du clerge, a document in which he denounced the attempt at schism decided by the men of the Revolution. It was signed by one hundred and twenty-nine bishops of France, defenders of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Faith. The Chapter of Aries replied by an address of the soundest doctrine, at the bottom of which is found, among those of the other canons, the signature of Armand de Foucauld. Having become suspected through their attach- ment to the Church, the refractory priests were soon con- demned to transportation by the decret of May 26, 1792. Armand de Foucauld then set out from Aries for Paris to join Mgr. du Lau, who said: "They want to inoculate the Church with schism and heresy; we can only die." This was giving himself up to death. On August 1 1 he was arrested with his bishop, and led into the confiscated church of the Carmelites, in which numerous priests were already shut up. Many of these confessors of the Faith were about to become martyrs. They knew it. They were all prepar- ing for it, trembling and staunch, depending on the grace of God for the courage of which none are sure. On September 2 the prisoners received the order to walk in the garden of the Carmelites ; even the sick and infirm must go out. They understood that they were going to the torture. M. de Foucauld and the other Vicar-General of Aries, gathering round their Archbishop, directed their steps towards an oratory, at the bottom of the garden, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. The windows of the con- vent were full of red caps, brandishing their arms and insult- ing the penned-up victims. " Let us thank God, gentle- men," said the prelate, " that He calls us to seal with our ' His mother was Marie Sibylla de Lau. - Where he was ordained priest in 1774. ^ Armand de Foucauld de Pontbriand, 1751-1792 (H. Oudin, Paris, 1902). HIS YOUTH 3 blood the faith which we profess." He was the first to be struck down by sabres and pikes. A moment after, M. de Foucauld fell near the body of his cousin. He was forty- one. To the old nobility another of the highest was added. In his race little Charles found by the score fine examples to follow. He did not, as will be seen, at first follow them, but he was brought back to them ; and none, since then, among the soldiers, the sailors, or priests of his house, could be named who had surpassed this Charles de Foucauld in self- sacrifice, austerity, bravery, and pity. He was pious during the days of his childhood. Many are the same in France, where there are so many pre- destined mothers. Madame de Foucauld had two children, Charles and Mary.^ She had barely the time to teach them to join their hands and say their prayers ; she hardly saw the first dawn of the passionate soul of her son Charles, over which she would have wept, if death had not prema- turely carried off that Monica from this Augustine.

Load more