René Voillaume

René Voillaume, born in Versailles on July 19, 1905 and dead on May 13, 2003 in Aix-en-Provence, is a French Catholic priest, theologian and founder of the Little Brothers of Jesus congregation in 1933, Little Brothers of the Gospel in 1956, then that of the Little Sisters of the Gospel in 1963 whose spirituality is inspired by the life and writings of blessed Charles de Foucauld.

At sixteen, Voillaume read a biography of Charles de Foucauld by René Bazin : it changed his life.[1] In 1933, now a priest, he and four companions went to live in Algerian Sahara (then a French colony) in El Abiodh Sidi Cheikh oasis. It was the genesis of the Little Brothers of Jesus. "Little we are before the task we have to accomplish. Little we shall be in the eyes of men also. All our lives we shall remain unprofitable servants, and we must wish to be so dealt with."

In 1952 he founded with Marguerite Poncet the fraternity Jesus Caritas, a secular women institute present today in the five continents. He helped as well Magdeleine of Jesus in the consolidation of the Little Sisters of Jesus and celebrated her funeral in November 1989 in Rome.

Father Voillaume was also the author of Contemplation today : "All the great Christian contemplatives are unanimous in their testimony: whatever the spiritual path, the union with God is perceived by them as real, a more existential reality, more solid, more full of being and certainty than any other experience of the physical world. In this sense, it is true to say that contemplatives are the most realistic of men."

Writings
  • Retraite au Vatican, Paris, Fayard, 1969, 277 p.
  • Concerning Religious Life, Darton,Longman & Todd Ltd, 1975.
  • Mitten in der Welt. Charles de Foucauld und seine Kleinen Brüder., Freiburg, Herder Verlag, 1960.
  • The Need for Contemplation, Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd, 1972.
  • Faith and Contemplation, Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd, 1974.
  • Christian Vocation, Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd, 1973.
  • Living God,Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd, 1980.
  • La Contemplation aujourd'hui, Paris, Foi vivante, 1979.
  • Brothers of Men, Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd, 1966.
  • Silent pilgrimage to God: The spirituality of Charles de Foucauld, Orbis Books, 1975
  • The Truth Will Make You Free: Letters to the Little Brothers
  • L'Éternel vivant, Le Cerf, 1978
  • Source of Life: Eucharist and Christian Living, Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd, 1976
  • Au cœur des masses : La vie religieuse des Petits Frères du père de Foucauld., éditions du Cerf, 1952
  • Follow Me: The Call to the Religious Life Today, Darton, Longman and Todd, 1978
  • À la suite de Jésus, Les Éditions du Cerf, 1965
  • Truth Will Make You Free, Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd, 1976
  • Zeugnis für Christus in Armut, Freiburg, Herder Verlag, 1964
  • Botschaft vom Wege. Briefe weltnaher Bruderliebe., Freiburg, Herder Verlag, 1962
  • Pregare per vivere, San Paolo Edizioni, 2007

Notes
  1. Robert Ellsberg, Blessed Among Us, p. 275
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