The Little Brothers of Jesus (; ; abbreviated PFJ) is a male

religious congregation A religious congregation is a type of religious institute in the Catholic Church. They are legally distinguished from religious orders – the other major type of religious institute – in that members take simple vows, whereas members of religi ...

within the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

pontifical right In Catholicism "of pontifical right" is the term given to ecclesiastical institutions (religious and secular institutes, societies of apostolic life) either created by the Holy See, or approved by it with the formal decree known by the Latin nam ...

inspired by

Charles de Foucauld Charles Eugène de Foucauld de Pontbriand, Viscount of Foucauld (15 September 1858 – 1 December 1916) was a French soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnographer, Catholic priest and hermit who lived among the Tuareg people in the Sahara in Alg ...

. Founded in 1933 in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, the congregation first established itself in French Algeria,

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

. As of 2020, the congregation had 155 members, of which 38 were priests.

History

Foundation

The congregation was founded at the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur in

Montmartre Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue Ca ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, in September 1933 by five seminarians from

Issy-les-Moulineaux Issy-les-Moulineaux () is a commune in the southwestern suburban area of Paris, France, lying on the left bank of the river Seine. Its citizens are called ''Isséens'' in French. It is one of Paris' entrances and is located from Notre-Dame Cat ...

, first taking the name of Little Brothers of Solitude. Led by their first superior

René Voillaume René Voillaume (born 19 July 1905 in Versailles; died 13 May 2003 in Aix-en-Provence) was a French Catholic priest, theologian and founder of the Little Brothers of Jesus in 1933, the Little Brothers of the Gospel in 1956, and the Little Sister ...

, and with the support of scholars

Louis Massignon Louis Massignon (25 July 1883 – 31 October 1962) was a Catholic scholar of Islam and a pioneer of Catholic-Muslim mutual understanding. He was an influential figure in the twentieth century with regard to the Catholic church's relationship w ...

and

Louis Gardet Louis Gardet (15 August 1905, in Toulouse – 17 July 1986) was a French Roman Catholic priest and historian. As an author he was an expert in Islamic culture and sociology who had a sympathetic view of Islam as a religion. He considered himself " ...

, they left Paris to found their first 'fraternity' in the El Abiodh Sidi Cheikh District in southern Oran at the edge of the Saharan Desert. There they took on their present name and a religious habit of grey embroidered with a heart and an outcropped

cross A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...

and modified

nomad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...

ic garb. The first years were marked by tracing the intuitions of Foucauld, settling and adapting his original 'Directory' or Rules, and establishing novitiates for the first generation of their religious congregation.

Post World War II

After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the members decided to move toward a greater witness outside of Algeria into the post-war world. By modifying their original monastic idea to fit new circumstances while retaining a contemplative approach to life and prayer they split into small fraternities based on the simple rule of adoration of the

Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...

and prayer in their dwellings; this was to be coupled with a life of ordinary

manual labour Manual labour (in Commonwealth English, manual labor in American English) or manual work is physical work done by humans, in contrast to labour by machines and working animals. It is most literally work done with the hands (the word ''manual ...

, friendship, and solidarity with those amongst whom they lived and worked. Their traditional habit was replaced with the appropriate plain clothes to help assimilate into their work and neighborhood roles. This revised congregation became somewhat linked to the Worker Priest movement in France at that time for the non-traditional setting of religious life apart from overt mission, religious education, pastoral service, or direct evangelization before the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and ...

Approbation

On 13 June 1968, the Little Brothers of Jesus were recognised by

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his death in Augus ...

as a congregation of

. This was confirmed again in 1987 by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

after a revision of the community's constitutions.

Spirituality

Each member of the congregation professes the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and undergoes a period of formation lasting several years including a postulancy which is followed by a novitiate. Afterwards, there are some years of formal study which include Christology, Sacred Scripture, Theology, Philosophy, Christianity, Christian Spirituality amongst other subjects – all ongoing within a fraternal setting of daily work. The Little Brothers of Jesus live in small communities in similar size to families known as 'fraternities'. Some members are ordained as priests to celebrate Mass (liturgy), Mass for their fraternity.

Notable members

* Philippe Nguyễn Kim Điền, Archbishop of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Huế, Hué (Vietnam) from 1968 to 1988 *

, the first superior general of the congregation

In popular culture

The Little Brothers of Jesus were featured in the fourth episode of the BBC's documentary series ''The Long Search'' titled 'Rome, Leeds and the Desert'.

Bibliography

*''Charles de Foucauld'', Jean-Jacques Antier, Ignatius Press, San Francisco 1999. *''Seeds of the Desert'', René Voillaume, Anthony Clarke Books, 1972 *''Cry the Gospel with Your Life'' (''Dieu est Amour''), Edition Le Livre Ouvert, 1994

References

External links

Little Brothers of Jesus subpage on Jesus Caritas
{{Authority control Christian organizations established in 1933 Spirituality of Charles de Foucauld, Jesus 1933 establishments in France Catholic religious institutes established in the 20th century Little Brothers and Sisters of Charles de Foucauld