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Madeleine Hutin, taking the name Little Sister Magdeleine of Jesus, founded a Roman Catholic community of religious sisters, the Little Sisters of Jesus, on September 8, 1939 in Touggourt, Algeria. She was inspired by the life and writings of Charles de Foucauld (also known as Father de Foucauld or Brother Charles of Jesus). Little Sister Magdeleine began by sharing the life of semi-nomads on the outskirts of a Saharan oasis. Little Sisters of Jesus now live in sixty-three countries throughout the world. ==Early history 1898 - 1939== Madeleine Hutin was born in Paris〔http://www.jesuscaritas.info/jcd/en/node/3194〕 on April 26, 1898. Her family came from Lorraine. Madeleine was the youngest of 6 children. Already as a young child, when on holidays with her grandmother in Seuzey, only 30 miles from the German border, she experienced the growing tensions between France and Germany. She was 16 when the 1914-1918 war broke out. Suezey was occupied and destroyed by the German army and her grandmother shot. Her two brothers were killed in the battle of the Somme and her sister died of Spanish flu. She was left alone with her parents. She thought of religious life from an early age and was always very attentive to those she saw to be less fortunate than herself. Through her father she learnt to have a great love for Africa and for the Arab world. As a young army doctor in Tunisia, forbidden to ride because of a recent accident, he jeopardized both his health and his career by riding bare back to collect some serum indispensable to save the life of a small Arab child. He never regretted what he had done despite the lasting consequences. With her father Madeleine discovered the life of Father de Foucauld written by Rene Bazin in 1921. "Brother Charles represented for me what it means to live the Gospel. In embracing absolute poverty and in abandoning himself to the utterly abandoned, he lived the fullness of love."〔Little sister Magdeleine of Jesus: "He took me by the hand", page 13〕 Reading the life of Charles de Foucald, who died without a follower, Madeleine was convinced that God was calling her to become one of the ‘little sisters’ that Charles so longed for. Her father died suddenly and Madeleine, who was 21, could not leave her mother. She would still have to wait to be able to leave for the Sahara to follow in the footsteps of Charles de Foucauld. Meanwhile she worked in Nantes for 8 years as headmistress of the Sacred Heart Convent School. Although she suffered from deforming arthritis she was determined to pursue her goal. For her Jesus was the ‘Master of the Impossible’. Any treatment she followed made no difference and in despair a specialist encouraged her to leave and go to live in a completely dry climate: "like the Sahara", he added.〔("History", Little Sisters of Jesus )〕 Never could she have dreamt of receiving such advice. She had waited 20 years to go to the Sahara. It was clear to her that God was leading her life: ‘God took me by the hand and blindly I followed.’ She left for Algiers on the 6th October 1936 with her elderly mother and Anne, a young woman who shared her desire to go and live in the Sahara. On her arrival in Algiers, a priest asked her to help him open a social centre in Boghari, a village situated in the High Plateaux. Madeleine and her friend organized a soup kitchen and cared for the sick. They sought out the poorest nomads in the desert riding their mare Zerga. So much activity however left Madeleine dissatisfied: "We lead a busy life in Boghari. The demands made by our work were beginning to overwhelm us. There was no time for prayer and recollection. Like Brother Charles, I had hoped to lead a contemplative life among the Muslim people." In El Golea, during a pilgrimage to the tomb of Father de Foucauld, Madeleine met there for the first time Father René Voillaume, disciple of Brother Charles, with whom she would collaborate to the end of her life. He was a founder of the Little Brothers of Jesus. Her desire for religious life never left her but it was Bishop Nouet of the Sahara who asked her if she wanted to stay in Algeria, to do a year’s novitiate with the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa (White Sisters),〔 and to become a religious. He also asked her to write the rule for the Little Sisters of Jesus. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Little Sister Magdeleine of Jesus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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