Little brothers of Jesus
The community of the Little Brothers of Jesus ( French : Petits frères de Jésus , abbreviation : PFJ / PFI ) is a Roman Catholic religious community in the spiritual family of Charles de Foucaulds .
Emergence
The community was founded in Algeria in the Sahara in 1933 , where its founder René Voillaume and a few companions retired to a life modeled on Charles de Foucauld. De Foucauld had longed for a community all his life, but failed to found a foundation. Voillaume, who had known him personally, took up this wish and began a simple community life, contemplative in the middle of the world. The brothers lived in monastic seclusion until after the Second World War they set up small communities of two or three brothers . Recognized by the church since 1968, the fellowship spread over the whole world, so that today there are around 250 brothers in 40 countries. They are closely connected with the Little Sisters of Jesus , which were created a few years later in 1946 and are also distributed internationally today.
education
The Little Brothers are in the tradition of the contemplative orders and at the same time live in the middle of the world, "in the heart of the crowd" (Voillaume). The place of their contemplative religious life is - following the example of Jesus of Nazareth - among the people. There is a small chapel in each fraternity. The regular celebration of the Eucharist is a central point in life. It is for this reason that some of the brothers are priests. This service does not differ their religious life from that of the other brothers. At regular intervals, each brother retires to a hermitage for prayer.
After getting to know each other enough, interested parties can live in a fraternity for a period (usually one to two years) and, following a job, share the life of the brothers. After this postulate, in which the decision about the further path matures, the common novitiate begins. It takes a year. After another year of normal fraternity life, the first vows can be taken. Four years later, all brothers are scheduled to study theology for several years. Six to nine years after the first vows, the final bond occurs through the perpetual vows .
In the German-speaking area there are communities of the Little Brothers in Hamburg , Duisburg , Nuremberg , Zurich , St. Pölten and Vienna .
Brothers in the Martyrologium Germanicum
The list of people who gave their lives for Christ in Germany in the 20th century includes the missionaries Bernhard Ignatius Sarnes (born January 30, 1936 in Haldenau , Upper Silesia ) and Heinz Eberlein (born June 18, 1935 in Wingendorf, today a district of churches ). They were murdered by rebels in the fighting after the Belgian Congo declared independence on November 26, 1964 near Mambasa ( Democratic Republic of the Congo ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Emmeram Kränkl in the Sunday newspaper of the Diocese of Augsburg from 19./20. November 2016.