{"id":286255,"date":"2025-08-24T12:21:44","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T10:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meetingrimini.org\/vite-donate-leredita-viva-dei-martiri-dalgeria-inglese\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T12:22:59","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T10:22:59","slug":"lives-given-the-living-legacy-of-the-martyrs-of-algeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meetingrimini.org\/en\/lives-given-the-living-legacy-of-the-martyrs-of-algeria\/","title":{"rendered":"Lives Given. The Living Legacy of the Martyrs of Algeria"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We present the text of the meeting \u201cLives Given. The living legacy of the martyrs of Algeria\u201d<\/a> held on Saturday, August 23, 2025, at 12<\/p>\n

PM in the isybank D3 Auditorium.<\/p>\n

Participants:<\/strong>\u00a0Bernhard Scholz, President of the Meeting for Friendship Amongst Peoples Foundation ETS (introductory greeting); Thomas Georgeon, Abbot of the Monastery of La Trappe, postulator for the cause of beatification of the martyrs of Algeria; Nadjia Kebour, Professor at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, PISAI; Lourdes Migu\u00e9lez Matilla, Augustinian missionary sister; H.E. Card. Jean-Paul Vesco, Metropolitan Archbishop of Algiers; Lorenzo Fazzini, Editorial Director of the Vatican Publishing House.<\/p>\n

BERNHARD SCHOLZ<\/strong>\u00a0Good morning, and welcome to this meeting on the legacy of the martyrs of Algeria. I greet our guests, and then we will give them all a round of applause together. His Eminence Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, Sister Lourdes Migu\u00e9lez Matilla, Father Thomas Georgeon, and Professor Nadjia Kebour. Welcome. We are very aware that you have undertaken long and tiring journeys, so thank you also for this sacrifice.<\/p>\n

We are deeply grateful for your willingness to help us encounter the martyrs of Algeria, to help us discover and rediscover the meaning of the dramatic events between 1994 and 1996, which are illustrated in an extraordinary way in the exhibition with the significant title \"Called Twice.\" We need to deepen our awareness that a life given can become a fruitful life, of great fruitfulness for our brothers and sisters near and far; that a life given, to use the title of this Meeting, can become a new brick in the construction of a more human, more fraternal world. The Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, said it in his message to this year's Meeting: \"In the martyrs of Algeria shines the vocation of the Church to inhabit the desert in deep communion with all of humanity, overcoming the walls of mistrust that set religions and cultures against each other, in integral imitation of the movement of the Incarnation and self-giving of the Son of God. And this is the way of presence and simplicity, of knowledge and dialogue of life, the true path of mission\u2014not a self-exhibition in the opposition of identities, but the gift of self unto martyrdom of one who adores day and night, in joy and amidst tribulations, Jesus alone as Lord.\"<\/p>\n

Our Meeting is called the Meeting for Friendship Amongst Peoples; we could also say for friendship between cultures, between religions. The martyrs of Algeria bear witness to this very friendship in an extraordinary way; indeed, they embody it in a complete way, to the point of giving their lives for friends who adhered to another religious faith. And they remind us that interreligious dialogue is always and above all a dialogue between people capable of allowing themselves to be enriched and transformed by the encounter with the other. I take this opportunity to thank the creators and curators of this beautiful exhibition, in particular the Oasis Foundation with Alessandro Banfi and the Vatican Publishing House with Lorenzo Fazzini, whom I greet and to whom I now give the floor. Thank you.<\/p>\n

LORENZO FAZZINI<\/strong>\u00a0Thank you, President Scholz, thank you for these words, for this greeting. I will say a few more words, if you will allow me, to introduce our guests\u2014perfect gender parity, as you can see\u2014but above all, thanking them for this meeting, which has been much anticipated and, we could say, providential. His Eminence will permit me to break protocol by first greeting Sister Lourdes Migu\u00e9lez Matilla, an Augustinian missionary in Algeria during the years of the black decade. Sister Lourdes is here with us and will tell us what it meant to be in Algeria in those years and also to escape an attack in which two of her fellow sisters fell, Sister Esther and Sister Caridad. Jean-Paul Vesco, a Dominican, as his habit clearly indicates, former Bishop of Oran, the see where Pierre Claverie was bishop, thus a successor to a martyr, and recently appointed Archbishop and Cardinal of Algiers. Welcome. Nadjia Kebour, an Algerian, professor at PISAI, the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, a Muslim scholar with a doctorate on Saint Augustine, so we are still in that part of the world. And here next to me, Thomas Georgeon, a face already known at the Meeting, present in 2019, a Trappist monk, Abbot of the Monastery of La Trappe, and postulator for the cause of beatification of the 19 martyrs. Welcome.<\/p>\n

Allow me also to thank the civil and diplomatic authorities present and to thank the scientific committee of the exhibition \"Called Twice,\" in particular Cardinal Angelo Scola, founder of Oasis, who very much wanted and passionately supported the creation of this exhibition, and so, even from a distance, the curators and I are pleased to greet him. This meeting has been titled \"Lives Given,\" but whose lives are these? They are the lives of the many missionaries, men and women, who today in the world, not only in Algeria, choose the craziest thing in the world, as Javier Cercas wrote in a book accompanying Pope Francis to Mongolia: \"what is the craziest thing in the world?\" To go to a faraway place, different from one's own homeland, different from one's own language, from one's own culture, to bear witness to one thing: that life is eternal. To bear witness that there was some guy, a few years ago, who defeated death forever. And for this reason, the 19 from Algeria, and not only them, were willing to literally give their lives. Why? Because they did not want to abandon their friends. The friends, the elderly with whom they had tea, the disabled children they cared for in their centers, the young people they taught Arabic\u2014they, being French\u2014the women to whom they passed on the art of sewing.<\/p>\n

The missionary martyrs were not trade unionists for the Catholics, but they were friends to everyone. And in Algeria, as in other places, they literally gave their lives for their friends, following that certain man who said that there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends. And what's more, at a Meeting that has the word \"friendship\" in its title, we will listen to a great story of friendship. And so I would like to start with Sister Lourdes, who is the one who, perhaps among the people present here, has lived this friendship most intensely. She lived it for several years in Algeria, precisely in the period when our 19 bore witness to this belonging to Christ by remaining there, close to that tormented people. We are ready to listen to her with great attention. Thank you.<\/p>\n

SISTER LOURDES MIGU\u00c9LEZ MATILLA<\/strong>\u00a0On September 27, 1972, I was sent to Algeria, where our congregation of Augustinian missionaries has been present since 1933. I arrived in Algiers at the age of 22, knowing almost nothing about that country. I did not know its languages or its cultures, and I barely even knew where I was. It was a great shock, and I couldn't imagine what I could possibly do there. The welcome I received from the sisters of the community and also their way of life went straight to my heart. Such dedication and such gratuity in their humble services. I observed them in silence and felt edified. The closeness to Cardinal Duval, a man of faith, just and dedicated to building peace and fraternity, was a great help to me in discovering my place in that country and understanding what my primary mission was. I still remember his words: \"We are here to live with the people, with these people, in fraternal respect, knowing that they, like us, are saved in Christ, even if they do not know it.\" The love of God is offered to all of humanity.<\/p>\n

From my arrival in Algiers, I had to strip myself of many things to open my heart and my spirit to new and very different realities. The local Church attracted me because of its commitment to the Algerian people and its luminous witness of unity, communion, and gift. And this facilitated my integration. Little by little, I began to discover the meaning of my vocation and my vocation in the Church, in this country, among Muslim brothers and sisters. I began to study nursing at a state institute in the Hussein Dey neighborhood. I was the only foreigner and the only Christian among all the students. I shed many tears, but with great determination, perseverance, and the help of the guardian angels that God places on our path, I managed to successfully complete my studies. For almost 30 years, I worked as a nurse in state hospitals, and I was always the only Christian and the only religious person. The great sacrifices of my beginning in this country led me to immerse myself totally in the people. I began to discover their values, their culture, and their beliefs. I realized that my mission consisted in living and sharing faith, daily life, with responsibility and authenticity.<\/p>\n

I lived with the Algerian people for many years and witnessed many changes in society and also in the Church, which was ever smaller and stripped of many of its material goods. During this time, more than 700 churches or chapels were transformed into mosques. In 1976, the Algerian state nationalized the Church's facilities and took over more than 100 schools and training centers, as well as dozens of kindergartens, hospitals, and clinics. Faced with this situation, many sisters and priests left the country, since they were left without work. Those who remained had to be courageous, resourceful, and creative to find new ways to stay in the country and maintain a Christian presence among the people. And it was then that libraries and school support centers were opened to help children and young people with their studies. My life had now taken root in this people. I had begun to know and love the people, and I felt their affection and their trust. They now treated me as one of their own. And then I discovered the importance of establishing relationships based on respect and acceptance of differences, and of living by sharing faith. In fact, at work, we talk about God much more with Muslims, with Algerians, than when we are among Christians.<\/p>\n

I learned that I had not gone there to impose something; on the contrary, I was there to share, to work together, and to value it. Little by little, my heart and my being opened up, and human relationships began to deepen, to the point of creating solid, faithful, and lasting friendships that I still have today. Thanks to these friendships, my trust in Christ grew, as did my desire to follow him even more closely. My trust in the Church and in the Algerian people also increased. And I was willing to give my life if necessary. After having grown over the years in this context of solidarity, trust, and friendship, dark times arrived, times of fear, insecurity, hopelessness, and mistrust. And then came the black decade of the 1990s in Algeria. We lived in Bab El Oued, a working-class neighborhood with a strong integralist presence, with my sisters. The people were very divided and frightened, and there was no project for the future. I worked in the new hospital of Ben Aknoun, a neighborhood far from where we lived. And thank God, I never felt fear and I continued to maintain the same enthusiasm, even with greater enthusiasm, I continued to share the life of my colleagues and also of the sick people in the hospital. I wanted them to feel that I would not abandon them and that I wanted to accompany, support, and encourage them. It was a way of sharing their insecurities, their loss of hope, and their fears. I was by their side when the night grew darkest and when the future seemed uncertain and when everything seemed to be faltering. We shared so many horrors and so much suffering. After receiving several threats and witnessing many murders, the leaders of the Church and of our congregations invited us to be prudent and to go out only when absolutely necessary. And I was very afraid that something might happen to us. In 1993, there were 222 religious sisters in the diocese of Algiers. Three years later, only 70 remained. We were only 70 sisters. Our Church was emptying, and a desert of Christian presence was being created. Never before had the future of the Church in Algeria been so threatened. During this period, we went out only for what was strictly necessary, just to go to work at the hospital. And before leaving, we would leave our personal documents on our beds and we would tell the sisters who remained at home so they would know where to find them in case we did not return.<\/p>\n

It was a period of profound spiritual experience and transformation, both on a personal and community level. And it was a time of grace and blessing. We were able to grow in fidelity to Christ. We spent a lot of time in adoration, contemplating the crucified Christ, and from there emerged the call and the strength to share the cross. And I, like never before in my life, experienced something: an inner strength and a great gift, which is the communion of saints. We were not alone; we were part of the body of Christ. The daily Gospel reading illuminated my path. My prayer was one of surrender and trust. Our Eucharists came to life. Every prayer took on more meaning and became more demanding. We had to love and forgive in word and deed. And I, as an Augustinian religious, refer to some words of Saint Augustine that helped me make the decision to remain faithful to Christ and to the Algerian people. They are part of letter 228 and say: \"Whoever remains faithful among his people, exposing himself to persecution or even to death, has accomplished a work greater than martyrdom. Consequently, never abandon your flock, nor your people.\" And Monsignor Pierre Claverie, bishop of Oran, who was also assassinated, used to say: \"It is more important for us today to give our lives to save the future of our people than to withdraw to save ourselves.\"<\/p>\n

And the situation worsened. On December 1, 1993, the Armed Islamic Group, the GIA, declared that it would kill all foreigners who remained in the country, including members of the Church. However, we felt like part of the community and thought we would not be touched by this problem. And so, on May 8, 1994, our brothers Henri Verg\u00e8s and Paul H\u00e9l\u00e8ne were murdered in the Casbah. The funeral in the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa was like a Pentecost, with songs of jubilation, an explosion of peace, serenity, and strength. We felt an even stronger desire to continue without fear, to live our faith with strength and passion, to the point of giving our lives for love. At the same time, this very serious event also made us aware, aware of the fact that our lives were in danger, as the fundamentalists had no regard for religious people. The bishops gathered and invited us to leave the country and to extend our holidays for as long as possible. So we left, we rested, we shared our situation with our families and with the sisters of the congregation. And after I returned from the holidays, I continued to work at the hospital. And every day, when I waited for public transport, after saying goodbye to the other sisters, I would always say, \"May God take care of us and protect us, and I hope to see you this afternoon.\" And yes, I knew that a bullet could come from anywhere. I was aware that maybe that day I wouldn't come home. The days were a continuous prayer, a prayer of surrender and supplication. I strongly felt the loving presence of God the Father in me. At work, all our colleagues protected us. After the holidays, the Mother General and the Mother Provincial, with Archbishop Monsignor Tessier, decided to gather all of us sisters of Algiers in the diocesan house to discern together and discover God's will. And so, October 6th and 7th, 1994, were two intense days of personal and community prayer. We were able to reflect on the reasons that might lead us to continue the mission or to abandon it temporarily. They were moments of very intense listening to the Spirit and of a desire to follow Jesus in his total self-giving for love of us. All of us, aware of the danger, the risks, and the threats, with great peace, with great serenity, expressed ourselves. And we explained the reasons why we wanted to stay in Algeria. And what I said at that moment was this: \"I want to remain faithful to Christ. I have discovered the value of my vocation, and the Algerians have helped me to live it with greater commitment and fullness. Lord, you called me, and I said to you: Here I am. I want to follow you in this time of trial. I want to be your witness. I am willing to follow you, Lord. I feel happy and I feel fulfilled, and I want to be faithful to this Algerian people who have always welcomed me, and I want to share and value my work and my life with them. This people has formed me, and in them, I have lived powerful moments and significant changes in my life. I have grown at their side in faith, in availability, and in gratuity. I am a missionary and an Augustinian in the land of our father Saint Augustine, and I want to remain faithful to him now and always. I want to live as Christ asks me: to love my enemies and do good to those who curse us.\"<\/p>\n

Fifteen days later, on October 23, 1994, after working all day at the hospital, I returned home late. We had a drink, we laughed, we joked, and we headed to the chapel, which was two blocks away. And before we separated, I said aloud: \"Let's go two by two. If they kill two, at least they won't kill all four of us.\" It was the day the Church prays for missionaries. And on the way to the celebration of the Eucharist, the first two sisters, Caridad and Esther, were at the door of the house where the chapel was located. They were there, waiting for it to be opened, and it was at that moment that two bullets went through their heads. And seeing my sisters almost lifeless, I could only say this from the depths of my heart: \"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.\" It was painful, yes, but we were ready for it. I believe that God welcomed the lives of my sisters and preserved mine to be a witness. I was left alone in the community. I wanted to continue offering my life to the Church, to the people. However, I had to show great obedience to my superiors and leave the country. I returned to Madrid with a broken heart, feeling as if I had betrayed the Lord and also as if I had betrayed my deepest convictions. And I cried a lot. I never thought it would be so hard for me to leave my adopted country.<\/p>\n

After a few years and after having some very enriching personal experiences with university students and with drug addicts, I was then asked to return to Algeria. Upon my return, I immediately looked for a way to resume our presence and to reintegrate myself back into the neighborhood, into the house where we had lived. With a new contract, I began to work as a nurse in the Mayllot hospital, in our neighborhood of Bab El Oued. And the head of the pediatric service, who was a Muslim, told me this: \"I accept you not so much for your skills, but because you are a foreigner, you are a Christian, and you are a religious sister. You will be a sign of contradiction. You will suffer, and it will be difficult for you, but with patience, you will be accepted by your colleagues.\" There had not been a Christian presence or foreigners in that neighborhood for many years. The new generations didn't even know what a Christian was, let alone a religious sister. Returning to the house where my murdered sisters had lived was a great challenge. With our presence, first and foremost, we wanted to offer one thing to the people of the neighborhood: we wanted to offer a gratuitous sign of forgiveness, of trust, and we wanted to establish new relationships. And so we began to give tutoring classes to the most troubled children. Our goal was to create, little by little, a space of peace, welcome, encounter, and listening.<\/p>\n

Now our center of welcome and friendship is a well-known and appreciated place throughout the neighborhood. And with the help of Algerian facilitators, we organize a whole series of workshops in sewing, jewelry making, and painting for women. And every month, we provide space for an Algerian family that comes from France to distribute food to 70 poor families that they ask us to select in advance. And the rooms where the murdered sisters lived, which remained deserted for so many years, have now been transformed into a space of life, solidarity, happiness, and hope. They are a place where things are learned, barriers are broken, and everything is shared. And without almost looking for it, we have become a place of listening and help for many people with family problems, health issues, loneliness, poverty. And they offer us this trust because they know that we are religious sisters. And I believe that our humble presence contributes to alleviating people's suffering and to motivating them, to encouraging them in the face of difficulties, and to making life more human, more attractive, and more beautiful. Our presence, at the same time, is radiant and discreet, and it is inspired by the life of Jesus in Nazareth. It transfigures the world in which we live, offering a Christian flavor, following the Lord's recommendations: \"You are the salt of the earth.\" So, in places empty of hope, where fear and meaninglessness have dwelt for a long time, today we have built the kingdom of God with new bricks of brotherhood, friendship, and solidarity.<\/p>\n

LORENZO FAZZINI<\/strong>\u00a0Thank you, Sister Lourdes, for this story that I think will remain in all our hearts for its touching truth. To Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, I ask: \"In this world at war, bleeding in every corner, what do these 19 martyrs of dialogue teach us?\"<\/p>\n

CARDINAL JEAN-PAUL VESCO<\/strong>\u00a0Forgive me, I would like to speak in Italian, but I cannot yet do it well. I will speak in French. On August 1, 1996, 29 years ago, I was in the Dominican novitiate, beginning my Dominican life, when we learned of the murder of Monsignor Pierre Claverie, bishop of Oran and a Dominican, along with his Muslim friend Mohamed Bouchikhi. This is one of those things in life that is hard to explain, but I felt within me that there was a special link between the life of this man whom I did not know and my own life as a young Dominican. At the end of my studies, I volunteered, along with another brother, to participate in the refounding of a Dominican community in Algeria, in Tlemcen, in the diocese of Oran. Life then had it that a few years later I was appointed bishop of Oran, and I lived where Pierre Claverie had lived and had been assassinated. And with Thomas and others, I was then given the responsibility of organizing the celebration of the beatification of Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, martyrs of Algeria.<\/p>\n

So, arriving in 2002 in this Church, I discover this Church of the blessed, including Sister Lourdes and many other brothers and sisters, among them Father Henri and Brother Maurice, whose funeral we celebrate today in Algiers. I arrived at a time when the country and the Church were finding normality again, returning to normality. I remember a newspaper page that was very alarmist and said: \"For the first time in 10 years, the road has caused more deaths than terrorism.\" It was alarming news, but it also said something about the fact that we were returning to a normal life. To the question of what the blessed can teach in this world at war, I would answer with three proposals. The first is the strength of a united Church. The second is the strength of brotherhood. The third is the subversive power of fragility and of a disarmed presence.<\/p>\n

So, the first: a united Church. The decision had been made to present the cause for beatification of all 19 martyrs together\u2014all or none. This was an extremely important decision. This is because it said, first of all, that if 19 people had been killed, they were all members of the Church who for 10 years had run the risk and had risked their lives to stay with their brothers, with their neighbors, with their Algerian friends. The second reason is that among the 19 were people of great renown, a bishop, for example, people of great spirituality, such as Brother Christian de Cherg\u00e9, people who were very well known locally, such as Brother Luc, a doctor, but there were also much more humble people, such as Father Henri Verg\u00e8s, such as the sisters who worked quietly, silently. But it was not for their personal qualities that they were proclaimed blessed, but precisely for the witness that they all gave together, a witness of fidelity and faith.<\/p>\n

Second point: the strength, the strength of brotherhood. When we had to think about organizing the beatification, it seemed impossible to organize it in Algeria, because it had never happened before. It had never happened in a country of Muslim tradition and where society is Muslim. The problems of organization, logistics, any kind of problem. Well, in this case, the difficulty was making people understand what a beatification was in a Muslim society. And then there was also the difficulty of presenting 19 murdered Christians when the country had nevertheless had 200,000 victims, including more than a hundred imams. In the end, we made this choice, with the support of the country's authorities, and we decided to organize the beatification in Oran, at the sanctuary of Notre Dame de Santa Cruz, on the Esplanade of Living Together in Peace, as the esplanade is called. Everyone present that day will never forget this celebration. At the end of the celebration, there was a smile on every face, and this smile told of the presence of a living God, present among us, Christians and Muslims together. Brotherhood, brotherhood in this world at war, in this war of egos, there was something that wanted to be told to the world. And it was told by a united Church, a message given by a united Church. Today our Church is universal and gathers to act and work for peace. The strength of brotherhood is written definitively, and it was written on that very day.<\/p>\n

After a united Church, after the strength of brotherhood, the third lesson is that of a disarmed presence. Our Church is a Church that is insignificant from a numerical point of view. Its history, as Sister Lourdes said, is the history of the loss of power. But we have had the experience and we have understood that losing power does not mean losing sense and meaning, but quite the contrary. It is precisely because our Church is disarmed that it is disarming.<\/p>\n

And to conclude, I would like to give you a testimony from Brother Christian de Cherg\u00e9, when he recounts his meeting with the head of the terrorist cell near the monastery of Tibhirine, on Christmas Eve 1994. Listen, listen carefully, I will read. \"When for a quarter of an hour,\" says Christian de Cherg\u00e9, \"I found myself face to face with the murderer of the 12 Croats, who was the great leader of the GIA, the Armed Islamic Group in our area, he had come to ask for specific things. He was armed with a knife and a machine gun. There were six of them in total, and it was night. I had agreed to go outside the house because I did not want to talk to someone armed in a house that is a place of peace. So we found ourselves outside. In my eyes, he was disarmed. We found ourselves face to face. He presented his three requests, and for three times I was able to say 'no' or 'not in that way.' And he said, 'You have no choice.' And I replied, 'Yes, I have a choice.' Not only because I was the guardian of my brothers, but also because, in fact, I was also the guardian of that brother who was there in front of me and who had to be able to discover in himself something different from what he had become. And that is what happened, in the sense that he gave in and then made the effort to understand. After our nighttime conversation, I told him, 'We are preparing to celebrate Christmas. For us, it is the birth of the Prince of Peace, and you come like this, armed.' And he replied, 'Excuse me, I didn't know.' After the Christmas visit, it took me 15 days, three weeks, to recover from my own death. One accepts death very quickly, don't worry, but to recover then takes time. And then I said to myself, 'These people, this guy with whom I had such a tense dialogue, what prayer can I say for him? I cannot ask God, the good Lord, to kill him. But I can ask Him to disarm him.' And then I said to myself, 'Do I have the right to ask Him to disarm him if I don't first start by asking Him to disarm me and disarm us in the community?' It is my daily prayer. I confide it to you simply.\" Here are the words of Brother Christian: \"Disarm him, disarm me, disarm us.\" What more urgent prayer could we address to the Lord in these times of a frantic arms race? The strength of a united Church, the universality of the witness of brotherhood, and the subversive power of a disarmed presence. Here, dear brothers and sisters, are the teachings from the witness of the 19 blessed martyrs of Algeria, what they can bring to our world at war. It is the witness of ordinary men and women, like each and every one of us, placed in extraordinary circumstances, and whose faith did not waver. Thank you.<\/p>\n

LORENZO FAZZINI<\/strong>\u00a0Thank you, Your Eminence, for these words that are so in tune with the journey the Meeting is taking. And I would immediately give the floor to Professor Nadjia Kebour because I think that as an Algerian, as a woman of Algeria, this whole affair says something particular to her, something that it doesn't say to other people or to all of us. So what has the story of these 19 martyrs and blessed said, or what is it saying to you, as an Algerian woman?<\/p>\n

NADJIA KEBOUR<\/strong>\u00a0Thank you very much. Can you hear me? Well, I would like to thank you for inviting me here to share with you a piece of lived experience, because these lives that we hear about every day are lived lives, they are lived experiences of incarnate dialogue. I feel truly totally involved in this story of the assassination of the monks of Tibhirine, simply because I am Algerian, I am a Muslim, and I also lived through the terrorism in Algeria. So the black decade, the so-called black decade or the dark years of my beloved land, in which all the Algerian people were involved. So we lived through this terror together, and the monks too. So I would like to emphasize that the terrorism was not directed only at foreigners or Christians, but it involved all Algerians. We were all threatened, and so many Algerians died, but for no reason. So many souls were killed for no reason. And this created terror among the population. It was a great wound, but Algeria fought, it fought hard against terrorism, and after 10 years, in fact, the Algerian government managed to achieve civil reconciliation. And after that, Algeria began to slowly catch its breath again.<\/p>\n

I say, having lived through terrorism, I can testify that it's not that Algerians were born terrorists. I... as a child, the God they taught me and instilled in me is a good, merciful God, but the terrorists brought a very dark image to dialogue, a very violent image of that God I had always prayed to as a child, a monster God, a God who allows evil, a God who allows the killing of children, women, men, foreigners, everyone. So I myself entered into an existential crisis with my faith as well, because what hurt me most was especially when they killed in the name of God, Allah Akbar. So I no longer recognized that Islam, I repeat, of my childhood, that good Islam, that Islam... you know that in the Quran, God has the most beautiful names, which are 99 names, Asma Allah al-Husna, among which is the God of peace, As-Salam, and by the way, Salam is the greeting of Islam, As-salamu alaykum, peace be upon you. Also Ar-Rahman, Ar-Rahim, the merciful, also the God of love, the God who is the loving one, Al-Wadud. There are so many more beautiful names of God that do not coincide with what these terrorists manifested. And so at a certain point, I too no longer recognized this God who, I repeat and emphasize, allows evil, simply.<\/p>\n

And so I feel, I repeat, involved in this story of the martyrdom of the monks, also because they in any case belonged to that land, my beloved land that welcomed them. Various Christian communities were born in Algeria. This should be underlined; it means that my land is a land of encounter between Christians and Muslims. This should not be underestimated. Also other figures, other figures like Charles de Foucauld, he went to Algeria as a soldier, he was struck by the traditions, also by Islam, and instead of becoming a Muslim, he rediscovered his faith among the Tuareg people; he decided to live among the Tuareg. So he, like others, testified that from encounter, friendship is born, a true friendship, to the point of giving one's life for one's neighbor, for the other. And I myself had this experience when I left Algeria in 2004 to come to Italy to study, to delve into the thought of Saint Augustine with a scholarship from Nostra Aetate, for which, in a way, I am also a daughter of dialogue. I also arrived here with Monsignor Tessier in 2004 and was welcomed by the Little Sisters of Jesus. There too, it was an encounter of life, an encounter in which they welcomed me with love and loved me without self-interest, as I can imagine these monks and other Christian people were hosted, were welcomed with love and without self-interest. So I lived this experience, which is why I perfectly understand the experience of Sister Lourdes and also the story of these monks, of Charles de Foucauld, of all the Christian people who in some way decided to also give their lives for the other. I can understand it because I too was welcomed, I was respected by the Little Sisters, I was hosted, and from there a very spiritual, very deep friendship was born, which allowed me to overcome the fear of the other, also to break down all the prejudices we have about the other, and I now feel like a daughter of the whole world. And so I return to speaking of the martyrs; for me, they are a testimony of a true friendship, a friendship that, beyond hatred, beyond, let's say, violence, terror, there is love. When there is love, everything can be overcome. In fact, Christian de Cherg\u00e9 had forgiven those who killed him even before they killed him. So to reach the point of forgiving before dying, forgiving our friends, forgiving those who might even take our lives, this is an act of martyrdom, but not in a negative sense; it is a martyrdom done for love.<\/p>\n

And so I return, in fact, speaking spontaneously is not easy, so I return to emphasize that Islam is innocent of everything we experienced during the terrorism in Algeria. In fact, there are many Quranic verses that totally prohibit the killing of innocent souls without a valid reason. So we read here in verse 5:32: \"Whoever kills a person\u2014unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land\u2014it would be as if he killed all mankind, and whoever saves one, it would be as if he saved the life of all mankind.\" Then, in the same Quran, the coexistence between, let's say, Muslims and others of another faith, and especially monks, the Quran underlines this. In fact, there is another very important Quranic verse that says: \"And you will find the nearest of them in affection to the believers those who say, 'We are Christians.' That is because among them are priests and monks, and they are not arrogant.\" Quran 5<\/p>\n

. It is clear that dialogue exists in Islam, it is clear that coexistence exists, it is clear that one can live, one can build bridges to achieve peace and coexistence.<\/p>\n

So I don't want to prolong this. To conclude my intervention, I would like to quote\u2014I didn't want to talk about Saint Augustine, but I would have stayed here for hours and hours\u2014but Augustine also taught me something. He taught me because when I experienced this violence in my country, I wondered if God is the author of evil, if God truly allows killing like this, in the name of Islam. And Augustine taught me that God is not the author of evil; God is absolute good, and everything that comes from God is good. So where does evil come from? Evil does not come from God; God does not permit evil. Evil comes from the free will of the human being. So we are responsible, but also fragile, as Augustine says, human nature. Human nature is fragile, but also culpable. So we are responsible for everything we do. And so we are, let's say, the custodians of peace and dialogue. So I would like to conclude perhaps with two quotes, one from Saint Augustine, because, as you have seen, the story of these monks is based on why give one's life, why stay, accept being killed, but not because they want to show off, I don't know how to say it, but simply because all the sacrifice they gave for my land comes from love.<\/p>\n

So, in fact, Augustine says: \"Love and do what you will. If you are silent, be silent for love. If you speak, speak with love. If you correct, correct for love. If you forgive, forgive for love. Let the root of love be in you. From this root, nothing but evil can come.\" So to love means everything, it means peace, it means coexistence, it also means peace. Another quote, thanks to Augustine, I went back to dig into the roots of Muslim mysticism, and there I rediscovered love, love for God and for one's neighbor. In fact, a great figure like Ibn al-Arabi has a wonderful quote in which he says: \"My heart has become capable of every form: it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks, and a temple for idols and the pilgrim's Kaaba, and the tables of the Torah and the book of the Quran. I follow the religion of Love: whatever way Love's camels take, that is my religion and my faith.\" So I conclude with these words to say that there is hope. As long as there is love, there is hope. And we are all responsible for achieving a universal brotherhood, as Augustine says. So it is everyone's duty, with good faith. Thank you.<\/p>\n

LORENZO FAZZINI<\/strong>\u00a0Thank you, Professor Nadjia Kebour. Thank you for letting us savor what it meant for your people: 200,000 victims, a hundred imams, dozens and dozens of intellectuals who spoke out above all against violence in the name of God, and this must be said and reiterated. Finally, Father Thomas Georgeon, who accompanied the martyrs not only ideally but also physically to be recognized as blessed by the Church, and I ask: \"What is their legacy for the Church and for the world today?\"<\/p>\n

FATHER THOMAS GEORGEON<\/strong>\u00a0I will give a brief summary of what has already been said by our friends. The message of our 19 martyrs, I believe, is quite clear. We must deepen, the Church must deepen, the meaning of a presence in a context where, in many countries, it is now in the minority. And the task entrusted to the Church is to demonstrate that a fraternal and respectful coexistence is possible between religions. In the Muslim world, it is the Gospel of peace that is announced by the Church and that is witnessed, without this necessarily having a hold on the other, who may remain deaf and blind to such a witness. It seems to me that in today's world, the martyrs of Algeria, and also all those who remained\u2014because few were taken, but many remained, and today we have heard Sister Lourdes give her testimony. I know how much it costs her to speak, but I would like to tell you, dear friends, that today on this stage you have heard a true confessor of the faith, as Monsignor Tessier also was.<\/p>\n

Lourdes had done her discernment, as she explained to us, she had made the choice to remain in Algeria, she explained it at length; she was not taken. Having met many of the permanent members of the Church of Algiers who made the choice to stay and who were not killed, many experienced a real spiritual battle, asking themselves: \"But why was I not killed?\" So it is an extraordinary thing to be able to listen to confessors of the faith like this. In today's world, the martyrs teach us what perseverance means, fidelity\u2014a word that has come up several times\u2014friendship. Here we are in a perspective of interreligious dialogue with Muslims, and they show us that to enter into dialogue, we must be humble, and dialogue can be undertaken along with the path of humility and also, I would say, by developing in ourselves a taste for the other. How do we live, within the Church and with believers of other religions, how do we live otherness? Do I consider the other who is different from me as a danger or as a blessing on my path?<\/p>\n

A testimony was given on the day of Claverie's funeral by a Muslim woman who had asked to speak during the funeral service, at risk to herself. She explained in a few words that Pierre, Claverie, was her bishop, a Muslim woman speaking of the Catholic bishop, that he was her bishop. Why was he her bishop? Because when she had gone through a severe crisis in her own Muslim faith, it was the bishop of the Christians who had helped her to rediscover the roots of her faith. Claverie had not tried to convert her to Christianity; he had only tried to give her new roots in her own Muslim faith. So it is not a matter of\u2014that is, the martyrs are not people who invite us to try to convert others; they call us to our own conversion and to an inner dynamic. The blessed Henri Verg\u00e8s used to say: \"Openly take the side of love, of forgiveness, of communion against hatred, revenge, and violence.\" And some phrases from Brother Verg\u00e8s express this shared hope, this Gospel of life that they wanted to follow until the gift of themselves.<\/p>\n

And not to be too long, because we have gone over time, I would conclude with the common good. They teach us and tell the Church what the common good can be. You know that Pope Francis, who gave real support to the cause, it was he who (we remember because we were together with the Cardinal, who at the time was bishop of Oran), that is, with his fist on his desk, Pope Francis said: \"This beatification must absolutely take place in Algeria.\" Why did Pope Francis say that? I believe he perceived the benefit of such a cause in the context of interreligious dialogue with Islam. A dialogue that is carried out by the Church as a guest, a poor, hosted Church that enters into dialogue with the Muslim world. And if you remember, after the beatification, there were many steps taken by Pope Francis: the meeting with the imam of the great mosque of Cairo in, I don't remember where, and the signing of the document on human fraternity, the trip to Morocco, then many other steps. And Pope Francis has left us among his texts \"Fratelli tutti.\" \"Fratelli tutti\" which shows us as a Church, but also for all men of good will, how we must walk towards a universal brotherhood. And our 19 are an icon of this journey of brotherhood. In their choice to remain as brothers and sisters for brothers and sisters, those who were Muslim, they were called to walk towards the holiness that God was calling them to travel. It is a holiness that has a weight, because they knew well that the outcome could be a violent death. There is a clear reference to the search for the common good rather than personal good. In their journey and in their discernment, both personal and communal, as we have heard from Lourdes, that is, the martyrs never sought their own good, otherwise they would have run away. First and foremost, they sought the good of their community, in a broad sense, since it included the good of their neighbors, of the Algerian people, the common good of hope. We are in the Jubilee year of hope; this is precisely one of the points they teach us, that they have left us. How can we, as a Church, as Christians, each one of us, each according to our own vocation, how can we work for the common good of hope in a world that is torn apart by violence?<\/p>\n

The blessed Paul, who is a brother of Tibhirine, one of the seven brothers, wrote: \"Our world is sick. What it lacks most is meaning. One does not know why one lives, nor where one is going, and one is willing to do anything. The crisis is not primarily economic, but it is a difficulty in living together. Having, the search to possess, is increasingly false. The relationships between men who feel they are not considered at all.\" In a certain sense, the martyrs of Algeria can be considered as inspirers of the encyclical \"Fratelli tutti,\" in which we find the fundamental pillars that were at the basis of their life and their death: hope, the neighbor without borders, the welcoming of the other in his diversity, the unique value of love, an open society that includes everyone, the value of solidarity, fruitful exchange, and, finally, something that is very much lacking in today's world, which is gratuity. I am often asked: \"What was the use of this martyrdom?\" It served no purpose. They did not make plans to know why they should give their lives. They gave it out of fidelity to Christ, out of fidelity to the Algerian people, and they gave it in the greatest and most beautiful gratuity. And they invite us to reflect on the meaning of gratuity in our lives, in a world where nothing is free and I must seek returns in all fields. But a poor Church, a humble Church that has no power to defend, is a Church that can give a gratuitous presence. I thank you.<\/p>\n

LORENZO FAZZINI<\/strong>\u00a0Well, I think, in concluding this meeting that has truly been touching for me, I think that today the 19 martyrs of Algeria are up in heaven smiling. And they are up there smiling together with Don Giussani, and they are looking down here, at this hall and this Meeting, perhaps saying these words: \"We hope that those down there finally understand that Christianity is not a theory or a nice idea, but an experience, a life, like a punch on the nose. A sweet punch because it is the boundless mercy of God.\" And there is a small brick that I want to share with you, a new brick. I am thinking of those 200 people who every day, for years, visit Tibhirine. 95% of them are Muslims. It is a silent pilgrimage that reminds us that those lives were not given in vain, like all lives given. I thank, therefore, those who came here from afar. I invite each of you to support the Meeting through the \"Donate now\" stations or the other methods you know, and I thank the martyrs of Algeria who have given us, I think, yet another brick of hope today. Enjoy the Meeting and have a good day.<\/p>\n

<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We present the text of the meeting \u201cLives Given. The living legacy of the martyrs of Algeria\u201d held on Saturday, August 23, 2025, at 12 PM in the isybank D3 … <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":286249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-286255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLives Given. The Living Legacy of the Martyrs of Algeria - Meeting di Rimini<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meetingrimini.org\/en\/lives-given-the-living-legacy-of-the-martyrs-of-algeria\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lives Given. The Living Legacy of the Martyrs of Algeria - Meeting di Rimini\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We present the text of the meeting \u201cLives Given. The living legacy of the martyrs of Algeria\u201d held on Saturday, August 23, 2025, at 12 PM in the isybank D3 ... Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.meetingrimini.org\/en\/lives-given-the-living-legacy-of-the-martyrs-of-algeria\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Meeting di Rimini\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/meetingrimini\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-24T10:21:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-24T10:22:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.meetingrimini.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/MArtiri-di-Algeria.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1365\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Eugenio Andreatta\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@MeetingRimini\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@MeetingRimini\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Eugenio Andreatta\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"42 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.meetingrimini.org\\\/en\\\/lives-given-the-living-legacy-of-the-martyrs-of-algeria\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.meetingrimini.org\\\/en\\\/lives-given-the-living-legacy-of-the-martyrs-of-algeria\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Eugenio Andreatta\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.meetingrimini.org\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9aa3850354492ed04158443c13690f4d\"},\"headline\":\"Lives Given. 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