University of Santa Clara - Redwood Yearbook (Santa Clara, CA)

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24 THE REDWOOD the successors of the first apostles and the first evangelists. The word is much, but example, love and prayer are a thousand times more. Let us give them the example of a perfect life. Let us love them with that love which cannot fail to win love. hi another letter he wrote: ' Holy Communion is my sustenance, my all. My unworthiness is infinite. In February Brother Alberic made his first vows. The other brothers in the monastery regarded him as a saint, so great was his piety. Each night he allowed himself but two hours of sleep. Yet he desired something more severe even than the severe rule of the Trappists. What he really sought was utter abjection. He dreamed of founding an order whose rule would be modelled as closely as possible on the life of Our Lord in Nazareth. What the Trappists could not give him he hoped to find in solitary desert meditation. But here he was persuaded to become a priest because he could then say mass, and that would mean more graces for the world. He went back to France and in two months was ordained to the priest- hood, in June, 1901, at Viviers. He soon set sail for his beloved Africa, and was received by the Bishop of Sahara, who gave him permission to establish himself in the south of the Province of Oran, close to Morocco. The people had never before possessed a priest to minister to them. They Avere among the most abandoned in all the world. Here indeed Charles de Foucauld could find utter abjection. He built a chapel with the help of a !V v natives. Around this Little build- ing a wall Avas constructed, and he began thenceforth to lead an almost clois- tered life. His cloister soon became the stopping place for travellers, for nomads; and with him they could trust their burdens and wealth of worldly goods. His life was not passed in peace, however, for insurrections were constantly occuring in nearby Beni-Abes and farther off in the desert. Wishing to pene- trate into the less civilized country of Hoggar he left with a detail of soldiers, and in September, 1905, celebrated his first mass in Tamarasset, a native village in Haggar. The people were called Taurags and were a white race with most peculiar customs. They were very wild, their slaves did all the work, and Father de Foucauld wrote : I am preparing the way for others, who, I hope Mali come. I am praying to Our Lord to send them. The ignorance of the people is so great that they can scarce distinguish right from wrong, and the family life is so loose and immoral that the children grow up haphazard with- out moral precept or example. Their most serious fault, however, is their pride. Like Arabs and all the people of the desert, they consider themselves superior to all other races on earth. European inventions, automobiles, air- ships, etc., impress them not at all. They consider a camel more interesting and useful than an automobile. Father de Foucauld performed the work of a missionary in this field for a long time, although he insisted that he was but a hermit. In 1916, during

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THE REDWOOD 23 most important in the century. He installed himself in Paris with an aunt, a Madame Moitesseir, a woman of rank and refinement and great wealth, it Avas here that Charles wrote a famous work to which the highest praise was given. This book showed in him a ready talent for self-expression. It was said that he could have become a great literary artist had he so desired. But now he preferred to be of use in a different way; and this disposition marked his later life. A love of science had enveloped him and developed within him, and had changed him into a serious, thinking man. Besides there was in him a gravity born of desert experience. Charles had communed with stars, the circling sil- ence, space, quiet. To hear constantly around him invocations to God, the Arabs prostrate five times a day with heads turned toward the East, and the name of Allah constantly repeated about him — what perturbation must have arisen within him, an outcast, a foreigner to this God. It must have made a tremendous impression upon him, for he began to study pagan philosophy; and when he found that it could give him nothing, he began to reflect. All his family were Catholics and all about — then he met the Abbe Huvelin. The Abbe Huvelin was the pastor of St. Augustine ' s in Paris, a sweet, humble, gentle old soul, with the reputation of a saint. He had a wonderful knowledge of human infirmities, and had a great number of penitents. It is related that he said in simplifying a phrase of Bossuet : ' ' Sorrow gives us charm. He spoke of the Church as a widow, and uttered this idea: Jesus is the Man of Sorrows, because He is the Son of man, and man is only Sorrow. Sorrow accompanies us to the grave ; she purifies lis, ennobles us, gives us charm. It is because she is our inseparable companion that Jesus wished to make her His companion. ' ' It was Abbe Huvelin that gave to Charles de Poucauld his second Holy Communion. He was now thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the Holy Ghost and set sail for the Holy Lands, here to seek solitude in more perfect communion, not with the elements, but with God alone. When his conversion had become complete he sought some religious order and upon the advice of his confessor chose the Trappists of Our Lady of the Snows. The Trappists are noted for the austerity of their life. The commun- ity of Our Lady of the Snows is marked by rigorous simplicity, and have their monastery in the mountains of Languedoe in the Alps. It was to this place that Charles de Foucauld repaired and it was here that he was admitted under the name of Brother Marie Alberich. Here he Avas obliged to perform such menial tasks as sweeping and washing floors and picking small stones out of the earth. Here he had time to do a little spiritual reading and was for a while content, until a desire grew in him for more absolute silence. Tn order to obtain it he left for Alexandrette, in Syria, and entered the Trappist monastery of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, In a letter he pic- tures the mountain people about the monastery as brigands and says, It is for me to make the future of these people. The real future is the life eternal; this one is only a short trial preparing for the one that is to come. We are

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THE REDWOOD 25 the early part of the war, he was brutally slain at night. No doubt this mar- tyrdom was in answer to his earnest prayer. His name now belongs on the roster of those who live venerated from age to age. It matters not how many years ago they lived, the records of their lives are like lamps shining upon us from the past. Charles de Foueauld may one day be raised high on the altars of the church. To Cordelia By Donald J. Pierr, ' 25. Poor outcast child of vain and fretful Lear, Thy sisters gilded words did mock the heart; Thou hadst the truth. Thou couldst not play a part Of flatt ' ring favor with a tainted tear. Blind Justice, needed at a time so drear When honied phrases reigned, forgot her art. That father cast thy love upon the mart And to thy truthful plea turned not his ear. Yet when the clouds of ill-begotten power Broke over him who ill had done to thee. Thou, loving spirit, from across the sea Didst come to save that feeble, maddened head, And there received thy last and fateful dower. Cordelia ' s love still lives, Cordelia dead!