The Basilica of St Bartolomeo in Rome, Shrine of the New Martyrs, received a working tool belonging to Blessed Brother Charles of Jesus: the trowel with which he built his last home in Tamanrasset in the Sahara desert, with the emblem of the heart and the cross, Jesus Charity, symbol of the communities born after his death.
VIDEO The vigil prayer in memory of Blessed Brother Charles of Jesus
This precious gift has been given on behalf of the community of the Little Sisters of the Three Fountains by Little Sister Luigina, head of the house, and was placed on the altar of the martyrs of Africa.
The service has been chaired by Fr. Angelo Romano, Rector of the Basilica, at the presence of Fr. Gabriele Faraghini, Rector of the Roman Major Seminary, of Bernard Ardura, postulator of the cause of canonizations (Brother Carlo was beatified the 13th November 2005), of a vast representation of the Community of the Little Sisters of Jesus, and of Andrea Riccardi and Marco Impagliazzo, respectively founder and president of Sant'Egidio,
In the heart of the desert, in Algeria, Charles de Foucauld met with martyrdom at the hands of a gang of Senussi raiders the 1st December 1916. His testimony, his being and calling himself "universal brother" in the remote region of Africa, among Muslims , was a fruitful sowing of the Gospel, a gift of love, a "monastic dream" lived in the human and existential outskirts of the world.
