If it didn’t really happen, it is difficult to believe that someone could actually live this way. Brother Shanthidas, whom all his friends called Shanthi, is buried in a village called Mylasandra on the outskirts of Bangalore. He died at the age of eighty-six, a little more than a year ago, on 22 July 2020, in Bangalore.
Bro Shantidas, however, was not born in India. He was born at Malmedy, Belgium, on 19 April 1934. His baptismal name was Charles Culot. At the age of sixteen, he expressed his desire to become a Dominican priest. But, since he was only sixteen, the Dominicans told him to wait for one more year. Without wasting that year, Charles studied Thomist philosophy at the University of Louvain, Belgium. One day he happened to listen to a talk given by Brother Dominic, a Little Brother of Jesus.
Have you heard of the Little Brothers of Jesus? They belong to one of the many congregations inspired by the spirituality of Charles de Foucauld. They live in small communities – which they call ‘fraternities’ – of two to four Brothers, sharing the life and struggles of ordinary people. That was how Jesus himself lived in Nazareth, they explain. They live a simple life in the midst of people, work for their livelihood, and witness to the love of Jesus.
Fr M A Joe Antony SJ
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