Little Brothers of Jesus

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LITTLE BROTHERS OF JESUS

(LBJ) A religious congregation with simple, perpetual vows, founded in 1933 by Father René Voillaume in South Oran, Algeria. It was made a diocesan congregation in 1936 by Bishop Nouet, Prefect Apostolic of Ghardaïa, Algeria. Its ideals are those of Charles de foucauld. In their apostolate the Little Brothers seek to conform to the economic and social milieu where they live. Their stress is on manual labor among the laboring classes. They dwell in communities of three to five members and work mostly in factories and fisheries, among the poor and marginalized. The Little Brothers had established communities in Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America.

Bibliography: r. voillaume, Seeds of the Desert, tr. w. hill (Chicago 1955); Lettres aux Fraternités, 2 v. (Paris 1960). m. carrouges, Le Père de Foucauld et les fraternités d'aujourd'hui (Paris 1963).

[a. j. wouters/eds.]