Charles de Foucauld

"My Father, I put myself in your hands", wrote Charles de Foucauld in his journal. "Whatever you make of me, I thank you, I am ready for everything, I accept everything, I thank you for everything."

When he was killed by bandits in 1916, the French aristocrat-turned-monk was virtually unknown. Over the course of a century, however, the radiance of Foucauld's hidden life has spread more and more, and the Church now recognizes him as a saint.

His youth and early adulthood read like a novel—the loss of his parents; his education in Paris, where he abandoned the faith of his childhood; his military career in French Algeria; and his exploration of Morocco. After a conversion at the age of twenty-eight, Foucauld was charged with a desire to surrender himself completely to God, leading him eventually to a life of prayer in the Algerian desert. There he devoted himself to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and charity toward his Muslim neighbors—even to the point of death.

Jean-Jacques Antier describes Foucauld's dramatic, inspiring life in a vivid narrative style. He based his biography on the man's writings and correspondence as well as interviews with numerous people who knew him.

Illustrated with sixteen pages of photos, and indexed.