Pope Francis cleared the way for the canonization of Blessed Charles de Foucauld and six others at an Ordinary Public Consistory held at the Vatican on Monday.
De Foucauld is noted for his life as a hermit among the Tuareg people of the Sahara Desert in French North Africa. Although he became an agnostic as a young man, he eventually returned to the faith at the age of 28. “As I believed there was a God,” he said, I understood that I could do nothing but live for him alone.”
He joined the Trappist order in 1890, but later travelled to Nazareth to pursue an undefined vocation. He was ordained a priest in Viviers, and shortly after returned to Algeria, where he continued to live as a hermit. He resolved to live among the Tuareg people, studying their language and culture while living a life of prayer and adoration.
