Charles Lavigerie

Who was Charles Lavigerie?

Charles Martial Allemand Lavigerie was a French cardinal, archbishop of Carthage and Algiers and primate of Africa. A Catholic priest who became a bishop in France, Lavigerie established French Catholic missions and missionary orders to work across Africa. Lavigerie promoted Catholicism among the Arabs and Berbers of North Africa, as well as the black natives further south. He was equally ardent to transform them into French subjects. He crusaded against the slave trade, for which he founded the order of priests called the White Fathers, so named for their white cassocks and red fezzes. He also established similar orders of brothers and nuns. He sent his missionaries to the Sahara, Sudan, Tunisia, and Tripolitania. His efforts were supported by the Pope and German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Although anti-clericalism was a major issue in France, the secular leader Léon Gambetta proclaimed that “anti-clericalism is not an article for export,” and supported his work,