Orphaned at five and trying to make sense of the world as a teenager, Charles de Foucauld lost his faith at the age of 15. Reflecting on this period of his life, he wrote, “I lived twelve years denying nothing and believing nothing, despairing of truth and not believing in God. No proof seemed evident enough.”[1] The further away he drifted from God, the more the young Charles, not yet a saint, resembled the prodigal son of Luke’s Gospel (see Lk 15:13–16).

Naturally contemplative, Charles appreciated solitude, but his conception of natural solitude uniquely “included the quiet presence of those he loved.”[2] He desired a well-ordered life, but in reality, the further away he drifted from God, the further he drifted from his family and friends. In his alienation, he experienced a profound sorrow and loneliness: “A painful emptiness, a sadness that I had never experienced before would return to me every night when I was alone in my apartment . . . I would be overcome by silence, disgust, and infinite boredom.”[3] As a young soldier and explorer, he spent several years living in Algeria and Morocco before returning to Paris in 1886 at the age of 28. Moved by Christian charity, his family welcomed him back with open arms and hearts, treating him as if he had never left for Africa or fallen into sin.

His family’s response shocked him—the witness of his family’s love toward him inspired him to live more virtuously: “I drew closer and closer to this beloved family. I lived in such an atmosphere of virtue that life returned to me, visibly.”[4] In particular, God drew Charles back to the Church through his older cousin, Marie de Bondy. Eight years older than Charles, Marie had first accompanied and formed him in the faith when he was preparing to receive his first Communion. Knowing her as an adult, Charles witnessed an intelligent, virtuous woman who loved God with all her heart. Suddenly Catholicism no longer seemed absurd and foolish to him.

Writing to Marie after his conversion, Charles remarked, “God has made you the first instrument of his mercies towards me, from you everything else began. Had you not converted me, brought me to Jesus and taught me little by little, letter by letter all that is holy and good, where would I be today?”[5] In this, Marie was a model catechist: She did not teach Charles with words but rather “by her silence, her gentleness, her goodness, her perfection.”[6] She taught him from her lived intimacy with Jesus, leading him into an equally intimate friendship with the Lord that inspired him to give his life as a religious priest and, ultimately, as a martyr in Algeria.