Little Brothers of Jesus and Little Sisters of Jesus

Little Brothers of Jesus and Little Sisters of Jesus, Roman Catholic religious congregations inspired by the example of St. Charles de Foucauld, a French military officer and explorer who experienced a religious conversion in 1886, while serving in Morocco. He later lived as a hermit among the Tuareg tribe in the Sahara before he was shot and killed by a band of Senusi rebels in 1916. He was canonized in 2022.

The Little Brothers (P.F.J.) were founded in 1933 by René Voillaume in southern Oran, Algeria; the Little Sisters (L.S.J.) were founded in September 1939 at Touggourt, Algeria, by Sister Madeleine of Jesus. Both congregations lived in small groups, called fraternities, in ordinary dwellings among the poor laboring classes. They held the same type of jobs as their neighbors. Their hope was that their presence among the people would influence an acceptance of Christianity.

Since their foundation in Algeria, Little Brother and Little Sister communities have formed throughout the world, where they live as contemplatives who perform missionary work.