Jesus Caritas

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The Call of the Desert tells the story of an extraordinary woman called to a love which recognized no boundaries. Born in France in 1898, Little sister Magdeleine yearned from an early age to befreind the people of the Sahara. Delayed by sickness anda the consequences of the 14–18 war, she eventually founded the first of many ‘fraternities’ in which groups of Sisters would become ‘one with’ the nomads, the marginalized and those who would not otherwise know a God who so loved humanity that he assumed the form of a vulnerable baby, born in Bethlehem.

Her sisters were to be human before religious, a’smile upon the world’ reflecting the love of God without proselytising. They worked in factories, travelled in lorries and lived at times in tents:they became gypsies among the gypsies, prisoners among the imprisoned. Their poverty and their resistance to the traditional separation between religious and secular life provoked criticism evenfrom members of the Church to which they remained devotedly obedient.

Little sister Magdeleine suffered physically and spiritually, journeying across deserts, seas and mountains to start communities among the world’s most inaccessible people. From 1957 onwards she travelled in secret but extensively behind the Iron Curtain, where she was a presence of prayer and an initiator of fruitful friendships.

This first biography shows how, richly human yet profoundly spiritual, her life was essentially hidden. Yet when she died in 1989, she left a legacy of 1400 Sisters from 64 nations, a multitude of friends of all creeds, nationalities and classes and a message o continuing relevance for the world.