Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916): Born in a noble Catholic family in France, he lost his faith when he was very young, but in 1986, after a visit in Morocco, struck by the Muslim faith, he had a radical conversion .He left everything and became a Trappist monk, but called by God to a greater poverty and deeper imitation of Christ, he left the Trappists and became a hermit in Nazareth trying to live like Jesus before public life: a hidden life doing manual work in poverty and service.
In his forties he was ordained a priest and left for the Sahara desert, among Muslim tribes.
He lives a hermit life:  very little food, penance, prayer, and hospitality to everybody knocking at his door.
He wrote on his journal:” I would like to be considered like a brother for all the Christians, the Muslims, the Jews, and the atheists too.”
After seven years in Beni Abbes, he moved to Tamanrasset in the Hoggar desert among the Twareg, of whom he studied the language and the custom (he wrote a dictionary French-Twareg). He became their great friend, as silent witness of Jesus Christ eager to “cry out the Gospel with his life “ I cannot understand love without imitation; imitation is the measure of love.“ .
He started to dream about a small fraternity of brothers and sisters and even wrote down the Constitutions and the Rule of the future community, but remained alone. .
He had a presentiment to be killed and this happened on 1 December 1916, murdered by a Senoussi.
His life of total dedication made him known in France and all over the world by the biography in 1921 by Rene Bazin and also by the publications of his writings.