After a path of Christian witness, at the age of 89 years left us the French-born actor and English father Michael Lonsdale.

Over sixty films in his long career that began in the 1960s. The extraordinary experience of faith of the actor known for having interpreted, in the movie Men of God, one of the monks of Tibhirine: "Believing is a gift that cannot be kept to oneself". But recently also films like The cardboard village, directed by Ermanno Olmi (2011), Gebo and the shadow, regia di Manoel de Oliveira (2012) and finally Les Premiers, the last, directed by Bouli Lanners (2016).

In his career he also acted for iconic directors such as Orson Welles, Francois Truffaut, Louis Malle, Luis Buñuel, Jean-Pierre Mocky and Jean Eustache.

We had the gift of having met him more than once in Cannes as President of the Festival of the Beatitudes which for some years has been held in conjunction with the Cannes Film Festival, inside the Church of Notre-Dame de Bon Voyage which is located just behind the Croisette and in a second location on the Saint Honorat Island opposite Cannes.

We have a vivid memory of hers performance biblical and charismatic to recite the Way of the cross at Notre-Dame de Bon Voyage in May 2016 which has remained in our hearts and therefore we thank him for the living Christian witness in the variegated world of entertainment.