Reviews of Atlas Monks Film award -
Of Gods and Men, Des Hommes Et Des Dieux
Of Gods and Men, Des Hommes Et Des Dieux
Glasgow
-----
Forwarded Message ----
From: Andy . . .
To: Donald . . .Sent: Mon, 6 December, 2010 0:34:37
Subject: Of Gods and Men Des Hommes et des Dieux
From: Andy . . .
To: Donald . . .Sent: Mon, 6 December, 2010 0:34:37
Subject: Of Gods and Men Des Hommes et des Dieux
Dear
Donald
Anne
Marie and I have just returned from seeing the film of Gods and Men. What
a movie. Very sensitive to the spirituality of the life within the
monastery. The setting depicted the very simplistic way of life of these
monks and actors in no way detracted from the sensitive nature of the build up
to the kidnapping of the seven martyrs.
The
movie was very spiritual, prayerful and at parts very emotional especially
after the community had decided to remain in the monastery and during the
community meal one of the monks opened bottles of wine and played a recording
from Swan Lake - a very moving part of the story as each member of the
community realised what lay ahead of them
The
sensitivity of the Cistercian way of life was very evident in the singing of
the psalms, in the celebration of the Eucharist and in the Salve Regina. On looking
a some of the photographs of the Atlas Martyrs it is amazing how the actors
chosen to portray the monks resembled them. A film well worth
seeing.
God
bless
Andy
Amazon
US
5.0 out
of 5 stars
Brothers of Tibhirine,
11 Dec
2010
By
Benedict –
Movie Review
Of Gods and Men OST (Des Hommes et des Dieux) (Audio CD)
After
seeing this film I was moved by the very carefully selected music used as
assist in the understanding of the spiritual, emotional and prayerful depth of
the real life story of the Atlas Martyrs. The use of Latin and French text in
the singing aids the listener, or viewer of the film, to become involved in the
prayerful atmosphere portrayed within the Cistercian monastery. The musical
climax of the movie is the background playing of Swan Lake as the community
share their "Last Supper". A movie worth seeing and a soundtrack
worth listening too.
Glasgow
----
Forwarded Message ----
From: Anne Marie . . .
To: nunraw Donald . . . .
Sent: Mon, 6 December, 2010 21:42:56
Subject: Movie review
From: Anne Marie . . .
To: nunraw Donald . . . .
Sent: Mon, 6 December, 2010 21:42:56
Subject: Movie review
Well,
the film is more than you would expect. When it comes to monasticism I wondered
if they would be able capture it.
They
did it by not being afraid to be silent and to allow the
chant
to do its work. It seemed to bring you to the heart of the matter,
something mysterious and wonderful.
The
relationship between the community and the village was a true bond despite
religious differences and obviously a very important focus.
I won't
spoil any more for you. I was deeply moved by the film due to its
simplicity.
Anne
Marie
Dublin
-----
Forwarded Message ----
From: Noreen . . .
To: Donald. . .
Sent: Tue, 28 December, 2010 20:58:32
Subject: Re: Movie review
From: Noreen . . .
To: Donald. . .
Sent: Tue, 28 December, 2010 20:58:32
Subject: Re: Movie review
Jo and
I managed to see the film "Of Gods and men" on the 13th Dec. at the
Irish Film Institute in Dublin. They show award winning films from other
countries. It was shown in a smallish cinema, which was full that
afternoon. A lady next to me said there were so many coming that they
were going to transfer it to a larger cinema within their complex. It was
shown for a full month. Unfortunately, it is not showing in the larger
cinemas in the city.
Jo and
I really enjoyed it very much and found it easy to follow the French with
English dubbing. It is rare to see such a beautiful presentation of
Religious life. Having so much background knowledge from you both was of
course helpful. It is great to read such positive reviews also.
. . .
. . .
Noreen.
Edinbugh
The
film Of Gods and Men Des
Hommes et des Dieux was in
Edinburgh.
Friends,
who saw it, were gripped by the whole presentation.
Another
friend hurried to view the last showing and regretfully could not get place
even among the standing.
Leeds
-----
Forwarded Message ----
From: John . . .
To: Donald . . .
Sent: Tue, 18 January, 2011
Subject: RE: Leeds cinema.
From: John . . .
To: Donald . . .
Sent: Tue, 18 January, 2011
Subject: RE: Leeds cinema.
Dear Fr
Donald,
Thank
you so much for your kind email and the attachment. I was delighted to be able
to print the copy of volume 1 of “A Heritage Too Big for Us” from the online
version you sent. I’ve long had and interest in the Atlas Martyrs ever since
reading John Kiser’s account. Their martyrdom has come to new appreciation
through the film ‘Of Gods and Men’ which I saw twice in Leeds. I found it
immensely moving.
Yours . .
John
Peter from Leicester spoke to us about how riveting and impressive silence at the end of the showing.
Other Emails and Letters came from UK and came friends in France to tell us of their pleasure to see the film on the Atlas Monks.
Our anticipation awaits the availability of the DVD.
The Amazon provider disappointed us by supplying the CD Audio ONLY,
and then failed completely to offer the DVD Of Gods and Men, Des Hommes Et Des Dieux.
Perhaps it may find the DVD through www.amazon.fr/dvd-dvds-doccasion-imports...tv/b?
Peter from Leicester spoke to us about how riveting and impressive silence at the end of the showing.
Other Emails and Letters came from UK and came friends in France to tell us of their pleasure to see the film on the Atlas Monks.
Our anticipation awaits the availability of the DVD.
The Amazon provider disappointed us by supplying the CD Audio ONLY,
and then failed completely to offer the DVD Of Gods and Men, Des Hommes Et Des Dieux.
Perhaps it may find the DVD through www.amazon.fr/dvd-dvds-doccasion-imports...tv/b?
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
RESOURCE.
An Archive of the background of the seven monks of Atlas, Algeria.
For those who wish to read more on our book on-line here.
An Archive of the background of the seven monks of Atlas, Algeria.
For those who wish to read more on our book on-line here.
A Heritage Too Big For US
Atlas Martyrs
Vol 1. edited by
Donald McGlynn, ocso
On May 21, 1996, seven monks of the Cistercian-Trappist
monastery of Our Lady of Atlas in Algeria
In my heart a single phrase was resounding: “We will not
leave our dead alone, we shall come back!” (Dom Bernardo Olivera, OCSO)[1]
From the beginning
the General Chapter has been marked by the luminous witness of our brothers of
Atlas who have reminded us of the meaning, the value, and the fecundity of a
cenobitic life in the radical following of Christ, rooted in the local Church,
responsible for a particular people, open to dialogue between religions and
cultures. (Message of the General Chapter of 1996)[2]
Tibhirine was for us an icon of our vocation as Christians
seeking God in the land
of Algeria Algiers
I had hardly arrived in their house, so poor and welcoming
at the same time, when deep within me, coming I know not from where, I had the
powerful feeling that the true monks of today were right there. And I
remembered the words of Jean Baptiste Metz: that the religious life can no
longer be understood away from that precariousness which tells of its openness
to the eschatological. (Fr. Philippe Hémon, Tamié)[4]
Chronology
March
27–May 21 Fifty-six days of abduction.
|
||
March 27
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Abduction of seven monks in their monastery of Our
Lady of Atlas, Tibhirine.
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March 28
|
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April 14
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Pope John Paul II, in
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April 25
|
The aman, the
protection of the previous emir, is revoked. The GIA justify their kidnapping
of the monks “still alive” and demand of President Chirac “an exchange of
your prisoners for our prisoners.”
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April 28
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More than 2000 people pray in Notre Dame in
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April 30
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The French ambassador receives an audio cassette confirming
that the monks are still alive, as well as a letter laying down the
conditions for negotiation.
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May 1
|
A day of prayer is observed world-wide in Cistercian
monasteries.
|
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May 7
|
In
|
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May 9
|
The French authorities affirm that they will not negotiate
with the GIA.
|
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May 21
|
The GIA affirm: “We have cut the throats of the seven
monks.”
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May 27
|
Pentecost. Testament of Fr. Christian is opened. “Words to
inspire the world” give keynote to reflections on the events.
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May 30
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Cardinal Léon-Étienne Duval dies at ninety-two. The remains
of the seven monks are found. Abbot General Bernardo Olivera arrives in
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June 2
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Cardinal Arinze preaches panegyric at Mass in
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June 4
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Transfer of remains by seven military ambulances to
Tibhirine. Burial of the seven monks surrounded by mourning Muslim neighbors.
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July 16
|
Reported assassination of Djamel Zitouni by other rebels.
|
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August 1
|
Bishop Pierre Claverie of
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October 5
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Fr. Jean-Pierre
addresses the General Chapter on “Present Situation of Atlas.”
|
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October 12
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At Tre Fontane,
|
|
Abduction: March 26–27, 1996
Among those who lived through the events of the forced entry
of the GIA terrorists (Armed Islamic Group) and the abduction of seven monks on
the night of March 26–27, 1996, were three eyewitnesses who wrote accounts of
what happened.[5]
Fr. Jean-Pierre was the porter of the monastery, who observed some of the
activities of that night. Fr. Amadeus’s room was close to the medical supplies,
which diverted attention from his locked door. The third witness was one of
twelve members of the Ribât group staying in the guest quarters. They were
fortunate to remain undetected. Each became aware of what was happening in his
own way. It is remarkable that so much could have been going on, within the
same walls, without everyone’s being alerted. A clear, composite picture of
events emerges from the independent accounts of these witnesses.
At the midday hour of March 26, 1996, the community Mass was
celebrated as usual. As the brothers heard the Gospel of the day, they could
not have anticipated the manner in which the words from John 8:21–30, “I am
going away and you will seek me,” were to be realized tragically in seven of
them that very night.
At 5:30 p.m., the end of the working day, the time people
stopped coming to the dispensary, Fr. Jean-Pierre locked up for the night. The
Security Services had been insisting on early closing for some time. At 1:15
a.m., Fr. Jean-Pierre, sleeping in the porter’s room next to the entrance, was
awakened by the sound of voices. Remaining concealed, he made out two or three
persons speaking in Arabic and immediately realized it could only be the
“brothers from the mountain” who had somehow gained access to the cloister. A
man with a tommy-gun joined the others. From another angle Jean-Pierre saw a
turbaned figure, also with a tommy-gun slung across his shoulder, making an
entrance near Br. Luc’s room; conversation was low and there was no violence,
so he did not realize the gravity of the situation. He had not heard the
doorbell and therefore assumed that Fr. Christian had forestalled him and had
taken matters in hand just as he had done on that all too acutely remembered
forced entry of Christmas Eve, 1993. He had no idea that some twenty terrorists
were deployed. He felt it wiser not to show himself and prayed anxiously for
them to go away. The thought of death and martyrdom had often occurred to him
but not the possibility of being taken hostage. He heard someone ask “Who is
the chief?” and a reply, “That’s him, the chief. You must do what he tells
you,” followed by comings and goings in the entrance hall. Then silence, and
the sound of the street door being closed. He thought Christian had sent the
intruders away. He went to go to the bathroom before returning to bed. The
lights had been turned off; everything seemed in order, except for some
clothing scattered about. He wondered, “Did they ask for some clothing that
they did not like and threw there on their way out?” Everything else seemed
normal. There was nothing more to be done. Jean-Pierre did not know that the
lights had been turned off by Fr. Amadeus.
Fr. Amadeus had been awakened by noise that made him think of
Br. Luc looking for medicines, except that Luc would not be so rough. He could
then hear voices but not Luc’s familiar asthmatic cough. Someone tried his
door. It was locked and the intruders seemed to turn their attention back to
the medicine cartons. Amadeus used his torch to check his watch. It was 1:15
a.m. He dressed silently. The figures were too close to the door for him to see
much through the keyhole as they continued to ransack the medicine stores.
After activities had stopped, he eased his door open. The lights were on.
Everything was in disarray. In the adjoining room of Br. Luc, medicines and
books were on the floor. The new little radio had gone. Expecting the worst, he
rushed to Fr. Christian’s office, where Christian had been sleeping recently in
order to be near those at the entrance. There also everything was turned upside
down, the electric typewriter and camera had disappeared, and the telephone had
been removed. Of Fr. Christian and Br. Luc there was no sign.
“What about the guests?” It was at this point that he quickly
extinguished the lights and hurried to find out about the twelve members of the
Ribât who were in the guest rooms near the community bedrooms. The doors of the
monks’ rooms all lay open, lights on, everything scattered about and the
brothers gone. In great fear for the guests he continued along the passage
through the enclosure door to the guest quarters. There everything was quiet.
The night-lights were on and the bedroom doors closed. He knocked on the first
door. He found the occupant wide awake and waiting, having been roused earlier
by another guest in the group. The two listened in alarm. They thought they
heard Célestin’s voice among others and supposed he might have taken ill and
that the brothers wanted to move him downstairs, or might have wanted to take
him to the hospital, but that was impossible in the night. Boldly, one of the
two half-opened the monks’ enclosure door. They knew immediately that the terrorists
had come again. When at last there was silence and the hallway was empty, they
still could not risk making themselves conspicuous or try to escape by the
external stairs, fearing that armed men were still around. They decided to
return to their rooms.
The intruders made a quick departure. Did they think they had
their full catch of hostages after they had rounded up seven of the monks? They
would not have known that two monks, Br. Paul and Fr. Bruno, had arrived just
that previous evening, another indication of a premeditated kidnapping. Police
findings showed that taxis had been requisitioned at the village of Ain Elrais
As the guest in the
room nearest the monks’ enclosure waited in his bed with thoughts of death,
listening for further sounds, Fr. Amadeus appeared with a torch saying, “Are
you there? The monastery is empty. There isn’t a single father left!” Together
they began their search. The guest noticed that Br. Paul’s room was littered
with the wrappings of gifts and sweets he had just brought back for Easter. He
noticed one box left untouched because, he guessed, the chocolates contained
alcohol. He later placed these in the refrigerator to await the return of the
brothers. A large cheese was likewise left lying near the statue of Our Lady,
because it had the large Savoy Cross on the Tamié wrapping. In the kitchen,
refectory, and cloister they found little disturbed, except that the telephone
line had been cut. They went toward the porter’s room. “Jean-Pierre, it’s
Amadeus, are you there?” To their great relief Jean-Pierre, fully dressed,
opened the door with his usual peaceful smile. They told him, “We are the only
ones here, all the others have been taken away.”
The first thing to do was to contact the Security Services,
but the telephone lines had been cut. It was later found that the wires had
been severed fifteen kilometers away, another mark of a well-planned raid. They
went to the nearest house with a phone, only to discover that they could not
make a call. The family was terribly frightened, and Fr. Jean-Pierre stayed
awhile to comfort and encourage them.
By 3:00 a.m. nothing more could be done, and it was decided
to rest until the office of Vigils. Amadeus said he had not finished the rosary
he had begun while the others were out. Together they completed the prayer.
“Amadeus radiated an extraordinary peace,” the guest noticed. As arranged, they
began Vigils at 5:15, three guests feeling honored to hold the place in choir
of the abducted brothers, as best they could. It was thus in the chapel that
the other Ribât members, nine sisters, found them.
At dawn there was an unusual silence. The call of the muezzin
did not mingle with the sound of the monastery bell. It seemed that the
villagers already knew of the attack and were fearful. The twenty or so
faithful who normally came to the mosque, part of the monastery building, for
dawn prayer did not come. Fr. Jean-Pierre and one of the guests drove off
through the mist and arrived at the police station at Médéa at 7:15 a.m. The
commandant was on the point of setting off on a planned operation but gave them
his full attention. He immediately contacted his superiors and obtained
authorization to inform Archbishop Teissier, the French Ambassador, and the
Algerian Press Service. All was conducted in Arabic and with surprising
alacrity.
Ten members of the Ribât group departed for Algiers Diocesan
Center
During the day a contingent of police and then a detachment
of soldiers came to investigate. When they began to enter the cloister they
were stopped by the guest who asked them to stay at the entrance, using the
words of Fr. Christian on an earlier occasion: “This is a place of prayer and
of peace. We do not enter it with arms.” In each case the armed men respected
this situation. In the evening Jean-Pierre and Amadeus accepted the military
instructions and were guests at a hotel in Médéa for that night. The Ribât
guest accompanied them and admired how Jean-Pierre and Amadeus, in their rough
jackets and woolen bonnets, spoke with their usual simplicity and peacefulness
to the hotel manager, the head of the prefecture, the chief of police, and
everyone who welcomed them and wanted to fuss over them.[7]
History of Cistercian Monks (Trappists) in Algeria
The fate of the Cistercian monks of Our Lady of Atlas at
Tibhirine, like the many Trappists who completed their special religious
calling in Algeria North Africa
has always been exceptional, because it has held little hope of local
recruitment, and more especially because it has provided the need for a
Christian presence of a purely spiritual character in a non-Christian milieu.
The lives of the young monks who died in the early years of
Staouëli[9]
are remembered not for anything they had to do with the forces of political
power of French colonization, which differed so much from those of the conflict
of Algerian Independence, but for the uncompromising pursuit of their own
monastic vocation of silence, prayer, and labor.
The commendable achievements attributed to the monks for a
number of good reasons—their contributions in agriculture, education,
evangelism, and medicine—may be a credit to them but are extrinsic to their
real aim. These achievements demonstrate both the reality of the social,
religious, and political conditions and how little these impinge upon the life
of the anonymous monk following the simple Cistercian vocation of austerity and
prayer. The lot of the Atlas monks in 1996 was apparently at the mercy of
external circumstances, as was that of their predecessors at Staouëli in the
previous century, and at the same time distinctive in the primacy of its
spiritual goal and faithfulness to that goal alone.
The first Cistercian monastery in Algeria North Africa , one
young monk died. Four others, also in their prime, followed, and in the year
1848 alone ten monks died of malaria. These young men came from Aiguebelle and
were to be joined over the years by monks from Bellefontaine, whose interest in
Algeria
The spiritual and material success of Staouëli were such
that, in the spirit of the times, Napoleon III came in May 1865 to visit the
monks there and brought Charles de Foucauld to stay in 1896 and 1901. There
were few signs to give warning of the next sudden twist in the monastery’s
being hostage to secular powers. The doubtful support of a liberal
non-religious regime was followed by the period of fierce anti-clericalism that
led to the dispersal of thousands of religious in France
The same turmoil that brought the exile of so many religious
caused the Abbey of Dombes to establish a refuge in Slovenia Algeria Algeria
After trying unsuccessfully in two other places, they found
the location at Tib-Hirine, ‘the gardens’, a nineteenth-century English
colonial farm. Seven kilometers south of Médéa and at 1100 meters altitude, it
commands a magnificent view. In 1938, after four years of hard work, the small
group of five pioneers had doubled in number. Some monks, including some
survivors from Staouëli, came from Aiguebelle to strengthen the community.
During the 1939 war, the community grew to twenty persons. Several monks were
mobilized but the monastery was safe. The immediate post-war years saw
expansion in numbers and in buildings. The community reached the number of
thirty-five persons, including a living link with the past in the person of Fr.
Francis d’Assise, who had been a novice at Staouëli and had returned to lay
life when the monastery closed in 1904. This progress peaked in the year 1952
when Our Lady of Atlas was raised to the full status of an abbey.
At this point a new epoch in the story of Algeria village
of Tibhirine
Only in one instance did the monks find themselves in the
full flow of events when, in 1959, two of the community, Fr. Matthew and Br.
Luc, were kidnapped by the ALN (Armée de
Libération Nationale). When Br. Luc was identified as the toubib, the doctor, who gave his
services free, the two hostages were quickly released. Although Br. Luc soon
left for France
Br. Luc did not return to Atlas until 1964, to find the
community in a very different situation in the new conditions of Algerian
independence. Islam had become the state religion. In fact, the community, with
much negotiating by Archbishop Duval of Algiers
With only a handful of monks remaining at Atlas and so many
obstacles to its future, it seemed ironic that the coup de grace was to come from Rome Rome Algeria Algeria ,
or rather it survived with an ever greater awareness that nothing was ordinary
for a community of prayer on this morsel of land at the foot of the Atlas mountains . In March 1984, a change of status from
abbey to simple priory corresponded better to reality and at the same time
safeguarded their autonomy. The election of Fr. Christian de Chergé in 1984 was
the first time in twenty-two years that the community had voted for its own
superior. A new phase in the life of the community had begun.
To Remain or Not to Remain
At the beginning of the year 1992, the interruption of the
electoral process led Algeria
On December 14, 1993, twelve Croatian Catholics known to the
monks had their throats cut at Tamesguida, a few kilometers from the monastery.
A week later, on Christmas Eve, the monastery of Atlas was visited by six armed
brothers from the mountain around 7:15 p.m. There was no bloodshed, but the
visit was a turning point in the consciousness of the monks.
The leader of the group, Emir Sayah Attiya, was known as a
terrorist of redoubtable violence. He was responsible for the death of the
twelve Croatian Catholics near the monastery and, according to the security
forces, had cut the throats of 145 persons. His exchange with Fr. Christian was
extraordinary. Fr. Christian, appealing to the Koran, told him that the
monastery was a place of prayer where no arms had ever entered; he requested
that their conversation take place outside the monastery. Attiya agreed to
this. He presented to the monks, whom he recognized as being religious like himself and his group of
Islamists, three demands of cooperation. To each one Christian replied that it
was not possible. Each time the armed Emir said, “You have no choice,” but each
time Christian replied, “Yes, we have a choice.” Attiya left saying that he
would send his emissaries with a password. As he was leaving Christian said:
“You have come here armed, just as we are preparing to celebrate Christmas,
the feast of the Prince of Peace.” Attiya replied, “I am sorry, I did not
know.”
The miracle was not only that Sayah Attiya left that evening
without cutting the throats of the monks or brutalizing them but that he did
not return and did not send his emissaries. When about two months later he was
seriously wounded in a confrontation with the security forces, he suffered for
nine days in the mountain district nearby before dying, but he did not send for
the monastery doctor, which was one of the demands to which Christian had said
that he could not respond.
At a meeting of the community on the day after that
Christmas, the majority of the brothers were in favor of an immediate
departure. On December 27, Archbishop Teissier visited and explained the effect
that a sudden departure of the monks would have on all Christians in the
diocese. He suggested a plan for a more gradual withdrawal. After further
discussions in January, the monks decided on a plan that included the
possibility of remaining on “if there is no obstacle.”[12]
Eleven religious of the diocese of Algiers
The monks never bought their safety by any concession
whatever, and they never condoned any form of violence; but for them every
person, even a terrorist, was a human person worthy of understanding. For this
reason, while prepared for the worst, they felt the possibility of martyrdom as
a living tension of charity working both ways. Each time they decided to stay,
it was a decision taken after prayer and dialogue, a decision that was lucid,
courageous, serene, and unanimous. Not one of them desired martyrdom. Fr. Christian, speaking to a group of lay people
shortly before his abduction, said that such a desire would be a sin since it
would be to desire that a “terrorist brother” should sin against the divine
commandment “Thou shalt not kill.”
In the Hands of the Brothers from the Mountain
The abduction the seven monks of Atlas by the Armed Islamic
Group (GIA) lasted almost two months. Secrecy still veils the terrorists’
actions in the assassinations. The history of events so far put together
depends on the information available almost exclusively from one side. In the
absence of evidence of the actual execution, which is obviously not forthcoming
from those actually implicated, we can account only for the abduction on March
26 and the eventual recovery of the remains on May 30.[14]
Only after the actual slaughter of the seven monks was it made public that an
audiotape existed of voices of the hostage monks, about whom there had been no
information for weeks, showing that they were still alive on April 27. On the
tape, the terrorists threatened that they would slit the throats of the monks
if the French authorities refused to negotiate. The tape was temporarily kept
secret. It was not even revealed to the Algerian security forces. And so
twenty-one days later, a message from the same source declared, “They cut off
the discussion which had begun—and we cut the monks’ throats.”
By definition martyrs
speak for themselves; they have earned that special title of “witness” or martyr by giving their very lives.
These followers of Christ had to articulate for themselves their spirit of love
and unflinching faith in the face of direct threats, in the close proximity of
assassins, and in sight of repeated killings. One can learn why the monks felt
called to remain faithful to their vocation in solidarity with their neighbors
by understanding something about the personalities and backgrounds of these
seven: Christian de Chergé, Luc Dochier, Christophe Lebreton, Paul
Favre-Miville, Michel Fleury, Célestin Ringeard, and Bruno Lemarchand.
Biographical Notes[15]
• Fr. Christian (Christian de
Chergé),
a priest fifty-nine years old, was
prior of the monastery. He entered Atlas in 1969 and made his novitiate at the
abbey of Aiguebelle.
Father Christian’s first experience of Algeria was growing up
in that country as a child for three years while the 1939 war raged in Europe.
One of his brothers tells that at that time Christian was impressed by the way
in which Muslims prayed to God: “Our mother never ceased saying to him that
they prayed to the same God as he did.” Early impressions and love for Algeria Algeria
Christian, born in 1937, was the son of a distinguished
French general. In this family of the old French nobility he and his seven
brothers and sisters were formed in the active practice of their religion. At
an early age he became aware of his vocation, and at twenty he entered the
Séminaire des Carmes in Paris
This gift of making friends characterized his relations
within his extended family and led to ever widening contacts and friendships
within the Cistercian Order. He was invited to share his experiences with the
monks and nuns directing novices in France Holyoke Genesee
for his feastday: “This is a good occasion for a big thank you for all the
attention and kindness you showed me during the General Chapter. I have often
said since then that thanks to you and through you I have discovered another
image of ‘America’ and the echo of the same authenticity in a very different
economic and cultural context.”[20]
He had been elected prior of Tibhirine earlier that year. His regular
correspondence with the abbot general shows his great feeling for the
Cistercian Order. His letters to Dom Bernardo chronicle the deepening community
consensus and commitment in the years leading to the monks’ martyrdom.
Christian was a contemporary of Vatican II. He assimilated
the theological insights of the great dogmatic and pastoral constitutions. He
was a man with a sense of the Church, and after ordination in 1964 he served as
chaplain to the school of the Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre. He had good relations
with Cardinal Marty. There was affection, humor, and simplicity in their
exchanges. When Fr. Christian felt the time had come and that he had satisfied
his obligations to the archdiocese of Paris , he
obtained from Cardinal Marty approval to follow his long-cherished calling to Algeria Morocco
Isolated in Islamic territory, the
monastery at Tibhirine depended on monks’ coming from other communities. The
case of Fr. Christian was different. His first choice was to be accepted for
Our Lady of Atlas, although it was necessary to make his monastic novitiate at
Aiguebelle. Besides monastic formation he received encouragement to study the
Arabic language and culture for two years with the White Fathers in Rome
Our state as monks binds us to God’s choice for us, which is
prayer and the simple life, manual work, hospitality, and sharing with
everyone, especially the poor. . . . We are very conscious of having received
much from Algeria
His own preferential choice was to reside there always, with
the daily prayer on his lips, “Lord, disarm me and disarm them.” Fr. Mounios,
parish priest at Médéa when Christian entered Tibhirine, vividly recalls: “He
was a man with a fine bearing and of remarkable intelligence. Thanks to his
finesse he quickly adapted himself to the local people.”[22]
By his bedside after his abduction there was found the book
of Sheik Khaled Bentounès, Le Soufisme,
Coeur de Islam. Br. Paul had just brought the book the evening before. It
would have been Christian’s last reading, in his quest to the end for unity.
The book reflects the spirit of the friends of Islam and those who continue in
the hope “that we would make our journey together towards God and towards man.
This is the urgent concern God has given to us today, and we all pray for it.”[23]
• Brother Luc (Paul Dochier),
medical doctor, eighty-two years old.
He entered the Abbey of Aiguebelle in 1941 and left for
On the eve of his abduction, the intensity of the threat of
violence was too great even for Luc’s ever-jovial nature. With utter clarity he
wrote to a friend, “We can only exist as men by willingly becoming the image of
Love, as manifested in Christ, who, though innocent, chose to suffer the fate
of the unjust.” This seriousness and clarity of intent are all the more
significant in one whose sense of humor remained to the end, overcoming painful
attacks of asthma and the fatigue of uninterrupted attendance on the sick in
the monastery dispensary. He could gently make fun of misplaced pretensions.
His own ideal that nothing is more important than the love of God was exercised
with a cheerful spirit. In his words, he was “an oldie, used but not disabused,
worn out but not withered.” To think of him is to think of a happy person. He
had prepared his own burial liturgy to include a tape of an Edith Piaf song
with the words “No, nothing—but nothing—no, I regret nothing.”
The long life of Br. Luc presents a beautiful, consistent
picture set within a clear cut-frame of war, service to others, love of God.
Born in 1914 at Bourg-de-Peage, in the Drôme region of France Lyons North Africa in 1939. His return to France
At his liberation Luc understood that he wanted to save lives
and thus to serve God. He decided to join the Cistercians. After some years in
formation at the Abbey of Aiguebelle, he left for Tibhirine in 1946. His love
story with Algeria and its
poor people was to continue for fifty years without interruption except for
breaks in 1959 and 1992 when his acute asthmatic condition brought him back to France
Not many have had the uncommon destiny of being kidnapped
twice in a lifetime. Luc was abducted with Fr. Matthew in 1959 when the ALN (Armée de Libération Nationale) wanted
hostages to bargain for the Imam of a Mosque at Médéa who was imprisoned. They
spent a week on forced night-marches, until one day a rebel, just arrived,
recognized the toubib who had tended
him when he was seriously ill: “Are you crazy, keeping this person? This is the
doctor who cares for our people freely.” The two exhausted monks were set free
on the main road near Médéa and picked up by an army convoy. Luc, as an
asthmatic, returned to France
to recover, and Matthew had a break at home in Italy
His seniority among the monks and his practical apostolate to
the sick gave a distinctive style to the extensive influence of “this
powerfully good, this truly strong character,” as his friend describes him.
United with his brothers in the witness of martyrdom, Br. Luc exemplifies the
richness and variety of character and embodiment of charity possible in the
witness of Christian community.
“There is no true love of God without an unreserved
acceptance of death.”[25]
• Fr. Christophe (Christophe Lebreton),
The forced entry into the monastery by the armed guerrilla
band at Christmas 1993 was a turning point in his spiritual journey. Fr.
Christophe wrote: “This Christmas was not like others. It was charged with
significance. Like Mary we keep all these things that have happened. We
continue to ask ourselves what has been initiated in our hearts. Like a sword
the significance has pierced us.”
Christophe is too easily and not very profoundly identified
as a “student of ’68.” As a schoolboy of eighteen, he had his transistor going
all day in May 1968 to reports of the student agitators demonstrating in Paris
This new awareness could have led him to marriage, the value
of which he never denied, but the challenge of love led him to understand that
the love deep in his heart was from God and led himto the Church as the place
where this love, his vocation, could express itself totally.[26]
Christophe discovered Algeria Algeria Savoy
In 1987 an encounter with Fr. Christian led him to return to Algeria Algeria
The Islamic-Christian interreligious dialogue entered more
and more into his prayer, his writing, and his poetry. He felt that he was only
beginning to understand:
Not having the linguistic and religious knowledge necessary
to enter into dialogue with Islam, I feel called simply to listen. And it is
God who is heard in his Word who is sent, who tells me to listen, to welcome
all this strange, different reality. To the point of feeling myself responsible:
may the Spirit lead it towards the full truth. And if we can make this journey
together, so much the better! And making this journey we can speak and be
silent.[28]
• Br. Paul (Paul Favre-Miville),
Only a few days before the kidnapping, Br Paul[29]
was at Tamié and spoke to the community at length and with affection about each
of the brothers in Atlas. On March 26 he flew from Lyon
and arrived that same evening in Atlas. He had little time for unpacking his
suitcase before he was caught up in the train of events. Ever the practical
monk, his baggage had included a supply of shovels and copper beach shoots for
Tibhirine, which means ‘garden’.
He had been home to visit his ailing mother. Before parting
with the parish priest, his friend Père Baud, referring to the risks “down
there” he said: “I go back to Tibhirine, come what may.” In the presence of
others he concealed his fear with an air of black comedy. When his family was
astonished at the number of shovels he had bought, he quipped: “It is for
digging our graves better!”
The Favre-Miville family originated in Bonvaux, a Chablais
village. Paul came into the world at the outbreak of the World War II. His
father was the village blacksmith, and in due course Paul was to set himself up
as the only plumber of Bonvaux, extending his work to the Valley of Abondance
But this ordinary workman had a wealth of character and
experience. He was drawn into the municipal council and served as assistant
mayor and as councilor at different times and he equally fulfilled the role of
fireman. He seldom, if ever, spoke of his experience in the national service as
an officer in the paratroops in Algeria
It was not unusual to see Paul in the course of his
activities frequently make spontaneous visits to the church. Père Baud, the curé of Abondance, got to know him and
had him do readings at Mass, and he got the impression of a man of deep
spiritual depth of character. A good mixer, he could share a drink and a joke,
but he had a marked discretion. He was reticent about himself, but it came as
no surprise to his three sisters and those who knew him when at last, in 1984,
life for him changed completely. At forty-five, the celibate plumber decided to
exchange his tools and work dungarees for the monk’s habit. He was accepted at
Tamié. Four years later the prior of Atlas, Fr. Christian, came to the Abbey of
Tamié. His talk and his personality impressed Br. Paul. Together with Br.
Christophe, he rediscovered his old attachment to Algeria
His skills found full scope at Tibhirine. “He had golden
hands,” someone said of him. He found water for the crops, which the monks
shared with the villagers in a co-operative, and set up his own unique
irrigation system. Bringing back shoots of copper beach on his last trip, he
never lost hope of seeing them flourish in Médéa. His hope in small seeds
firmly planted in the earth reflects his own supernatural hope in the “Spirit
working deep down in the hearts of men.” He asked:
What will remain in a few months of the Church in Algeria
• Bellefontaine and Algeria
The abbey of Bellefontaine in
southwest France had a
considerable part in assisting the monastery of Staouëli, which preceded Our
Lady of Atlas in Algeria
First, I have to
explain that the three brothers felt the same appeal to go to Atlas exactly at
the same time: at the end of March 1984. At the end of February, a diocesan
priest had spoken in chapter about Algeria Constantine , a diocese of Algeria
Both Michel and
Bruno left for Atlas at the end of August 1984 for two years. In July 1985 Dom
Emmanuel, coming from Benin
At the feast of
the Ascension, we began to speak of the calling of Fr. Célestin, and he left
for Atlas in September 1986.[31]
• Br. Michel (Michel Fleury),
Br. Michel was perhaps the most unexpected person of the
three monks of Bellefontaine who quite independently came to their own decision
to respond to the appeal for Algeria
Born in a modest family in Pontchâteau (Loire Atlantique), he
was in his childhood enfolded by religion, with family prayers three times a
day. “A Sunday without Mass was not a Sunday,” his sister recalled. He always
seemed to find a sense of God’s presence in the land. At seventeen he tried his
vocation at the monastery of La Flocellière, in the Vendée. He took up his
professional life as a machine-worker in Marseilles Marseilles before directing his
steps to Bellefontaine in 1980, where he heard the call to Algeria
At Tibhirine he applied his usual dedication to work in the
kitchen and in the house, always calm even when overworked and tired. He spoke
little and observed of himself: “Out of the monastery I am like a fish out of
water.” His last visit to France
In his own way he prepared his family for the worst
eventuality. On a postcard he had written: “Through our windows there is only
smoke and fire in the hills and mountains. Until when? To depart? That is a
somewhat ambiguous word. If something happens to us, I wish to be in solidarity
with the people here. Keep all that I tell you in your prayers. Without a
doubt, the hardest to live is yet to come.” At the bottom of his letters he
always wrote: Inch ’Allah, ‘if God
wills it’, the Muslim commendation to God.
In the abduction, remarkably, Br. Michel took his monastic
cowl with him. This garment is worn at formal liturgy and on solemn occasions.
Br. Michel’s cowl was found on the road to Médéa. He died on his fifty-second
birthday. His commitment to God and to the Algerian people was tenacious:
If something happens to us (I hope it doesn’t), we want to
experience it here, in solidarity with all the Algerian men and women who have
already paid with their lives, simply in solidarity with all those unknown,
innocent people. . . . It seems to me that He who is helping us to hold fast
today is the One who has called us. I remain in deep wonder at this.[32]
• Fr. Bruno (Christian Lemarchand),
Fr. Bruno’s love of Algeria Algeria Algeria France College
of St. Charles de Thouars College
of St. Charles Algeria
It was somewhat by chance that he was at Tibhirine on the
March 26, 1996, and was taken captive. It was his first visit in five years. He
had come to participate in a vote for the office of prior. He suffered death in
the mountains of Atlas with the brethren among whom he had pronounced his
monastic vows six years previously.
He was a man gentle and just in his actions, composed and
reflective in his outlook:
Here I am before you, O my God. . . . Here I am, rich in
misery and poverty, and in indescribable weakness; here I am before You who are
nothing but Love and Mercy. Before you, but solely by your grace, I am here
whole and entire, with all my soul, and with all my will. (Bruno, March 21,
1990)
• Fr. Célestin (Célestin Ringeard),
As Fr. Célestin descended from the plane in Algiers Algeria Algeria
At sixty-two his presence here was astonishing. He was
beginning a new vocation after a long priestly apostolate that would have
filled and distinguished the lifetime of any priest. For twenty years, Fr.
Célestin had carried on an intense city apostolate. He had resigned the
comfortable parish of St. Dominique, Nantes
He seemed destined to experience life in its most agonizing
situations. At fifty, this caring priest witnessed the suicide of a young
homosexual, who threw himself from a window after calling for help. From that
moment his thoughts turned more and more to the monastic life until, to the
amazement of acquaintances, he entered the silent contemplative life at
Bellefontaine. What astonished his friends was how such a temperament could
feel at home in a monastery, “considering his need to talk and his urge for
relating to people.” He tended to speak vividly of his vocation: “Someone had
called him to the Order.” In the autumn of 1986 there was an appeal for priests
to go to Algeria
At Our Lady of Atlas Célestin was able to enhance the liturgy
of the small community as organist and choir master. The tension from the
brothers of the mountain caused him, perhaps, anxiety but, like his brother
monks, he embraced them in prayer and in inner peace. He would turn to others,
and in Br. Luc he found a certain complementarity, a contrast of
personalities—on the one hand the lifelong contemplative accustomed to tending
the bodily ailments of poor people, on the other the apostolic pastor, long
experienced in ministering to suffering souls. Br. Luc, the old monk, an avid
reader, would share his latest interests with Célestin, who was not much
inclined to reading.
The intrusion of guerrillas into the monastery at Christmas
1993 had traumatic consequences for Célestin. His heart condition became acute,
and he had to undergo a multiple coronary artery bypass operation. He had only
returned to Tibhirine after a long convalescence at Bellefontaine when he was
abducted.
The simplicity and harmony of his life is expressed in a
letter he wrote in January 1996: “In carrying out my daily duties (and this
helps me each day), this morning I sang two little sentences: ‘O God, you are
hope on the faces of all living,’ and ‘Wonder of your grace! You entrust to men
the secrets of the Father.’”
Ribât and the Monks: Origins of a Spiritual Association
The name Ribât es-Salêm
means ‘Link of Peace’. The group took this title when it first met in 1979 in
the shadow, as it were, of the monastery. The first meeting took place
significantly on the feast of the Annunciation in the spring of that year. It
was the initiative of some Christian men and women, well rooted in the Church,
who felt the need to form links with the spiritual tradition of Islam, not only
with the written tradition but also with the living tradition.
Claude Rault was then based at Touggourt and often met with
Fr. Christian. They discussed the subject more and more deeply. Out of these
and other discussions came the idea of a group of like-minded Christians having
the opportunity to meet. Their desires seemed to hinge on two main objectives:
1) The better understanding of Islam as a spiritual tradition
capable of helping their own spiritual life and growth,
2) The encounter with
Islamic men and women and their spiritual journey.
The question was where to find a favorable place in the
Church willing to welcome such a group and open to this common concern. Dom
John de la Croix, then prior at Atlas, had followed this development with
interest. He thought it important and said he felt it should be “grafted onto
the monastic trunk.” When asked, the community agreed to give hospitality and
support in this spirit. From then on practically all the meetings of Ribât were
held at the monastery. This is how the very strong bond between them came
about.
The Ribât, therefore, was not an initiative of the monastery
but of some committed Christian men and women who, like Fr. Christian, were
open to meeting and dialogue with Islam. Year by year, meeting by meeting, they
became closer to the monks; the community always kept the Ribât’s concern very
much in their prayers and gave them a sense of support in their efforts in the
milieu of their Islamic neighbors. The group enjoyed the kind of welcome that
they felt was a sacred hospitality. Three of the monks participated fully in
the meetings of the Ribât: Christian, Michel, and Christophe.
Twelve of the members were present at the monastery on that
tragic night of March 26–27. They were undetected in the guest quarters of the
monastery. In the strength of the legacy of their kidnapped brothers, they
transferred their meeting to Algiers
The following meeting took the title of Ribât in Diaspora and was held at La Thoberte, May 18–19, 1996.[34]
Attendance was the highest ever, an encouraging sign that the intuitive vision
of Christian would inspire others to continue. While still waiting for news of
the hostages, Claude suggested it was a time “to live the Eucharist more
intensely. The hostages could not celebrate it, but they are Eucharist
themselves by their whole being.” The meeting ended with news of the formation
of a new group of Ribât in Tunis
The strong bond that grew between Ribât and the monks
continues. After the assassinations, the solidarity established with the
martyred brothers seems to give added strength and conviction to the search for
reconciliation and friendship, communion and peace.
The Press
As days turned to weeks and weeks to over a month, anxiety
grew for the fate of the seven monks, and prayer continued. Many articles
appeared in the religious and secular press, which, in the absence of any news
about the hostages,[35]
told the remarkable story of the monks of Atlas.[36]
Press versions of the story were fairly accurate, largely because of the
rapidity with which Dom Armand Veilleux, the Cistercian procurator general,
circulated the authentic details of the Atlas community and first-hand accounts
of his visits to Tibhirine early in January 1996 and immediately after the
kidnapping.[37]
There was great sympathy expressed by the media generally, as the abbots and
abbesses of France
At the same time, reservations had to be expressed regarding
certain comments questioning the motives of the monks.[38]
A second question debated, legitimately enough, considered the precise nature
of martyrdom, dying in witness to the faith.[39]
Following the impact on the media of Fr. Christian’s
Testament, opened at Pentecost, May 26th, there was a new level of
understanding in reporting and comment. Fr. Christian’s Testament—“words to
inspire the world,” as one editorial put it—has even generated a literature of
its own in a continuing flow of interpretations, reflections, and inspirational
articles.[40]
Fr. Christian and Fr. Christophe have left other writings, but the Testament
will be the key to understanding them.
The martyrdom of the Atlas monks has profoundly touched the
life of the Cistercian Order. Their influence on the monks and nuns of the
Order has been considerable and leads to further reflection and writing on the
inspiration and relevance of the monastic vocation[41]
and the life of religious today.[42]
The Pope, John Paul II, frequently remembered the captives in
his public addresses of prayer and urgent appeals for their release. He spoke
of them during his journey to Tunisia
in April, as he recalled the saints of North Africa .
In his Angelus message on Sunday, March 31, he prayed fervently for their
release:
In this season of
the Lord’s Passion, we are thinking and praying for the seven monks of the
Trappist monastery of Our Lady of Atlas in Algeria
I appeal to the
sense of human brotherhood and ask for the immediate release of those religious
who have chosen to remain as witnesses to the Absolute, among a Muslim people
with whom they have built up bonds of friendship and mutual respect over the
years.
May they return to their monastery safe and
sound, and take their place again among their Algerian friends! May God inspire
all the citizens of that nation to embark without delay on the way of true
peace, for which the people so long!
This prayer and those of so many others were not to be
answered by the release of the monks.
After the Assassinations
Stunned incomprehension, shocked incredulity, and great
anguish of heart united men and women of every faith when the announcement was
made on May 21 that these brothers of all men and women had been cruelly
beheaded.[43]
In France millions shed tears as they watched, on television, Cardinal
Lustiger, Archbishop of Paris, extinguish the seven candles that had been
burning in Notre Dame Cathedral as symbols of hope, candles that had been
brought from Our Lady of Atlas and lit movingly by seven monks of Bellefontaine
to begin that long vigil of prayer.[44]
In a cry from the heart the cardinal implored:
I beg all who can to continue to pray for peace in Algeria
In a communiqué from the French Foreign Ministry, Hervé de
Charette said that the death of the seven monks engendered “a reaction of
stupefaction, of indignation, and of condemnation.” He appealed to French
nationals to leave Algeria
On Pentecost Sunday, for the first time in many years, bells
were tolled in every church throughout the country in honor of the brothers who
had given their lives. But a light shone on that Pentecost Sunday into the
terrible darkness. Into the gloom of mourning and hardening of hearts, relief
and consolation came from the very source of sorrow. On that day the Testament
of Fr. Christian was made known. This was a letter of “last will and testament”
to dear ones, which he had composed precisely for the eventuality of violent
death. He had written this message three years before in anticipation. He had
thought of all those he loved and also of those who would kill him. He
transfigured everything in forgiveness and love. In a few lines he not only
accepted death in terms of Christian faith but went on to new depths of
Christian love and transforming forgiveness.
Fr. Christian’s intuition and vision burst on the scene and
gave light to the consciousness of mourning millions. It was immediately
grasped by ordinary people. To commentators of the press, radio, and
television, Christian’s words brought a luminous key to understand the destiny
of the martyrs of Atlas.
The Testament, in almost poetic form, ends with the lines:
And also you, the friend of my final moment, who would not be
aware of what you were doing. Yes,
I also say this THANK YOU and this A-DIEU to you, in whom I see the face of
God.
And may we find each other, happy good thieves, inParadise , if it pleases God,
the Father of us both. AMEN. (In sha ’Allah).
And may we find each other, happy good thieves, in
“Seismic fault-line” —Bishop Claverie
On Thursday August 1,
1996, Bishop Pierre Claverie, Bishop of Oran, was in Algiers
In his address to a Scout rally at Fanjeaux , France Algeria
These tragic deaths have triggered an instinctive search for
the guilty ones in the need to attribute blame. In the spirit of Fr.
Christian’s powerful testament of forgiveness, it might be better if the guilty
ones were never identified or if the monks’ deaths were the “accident” of an
armed attack on their captors. By their abduction the monks were plunged into a
cauldron of opposing forces, and the story of their fate is swallowed up in a
sea of conflicting reports. The mystery remains as to who actually carried out
the kidnapping. The kidnappers had accents that did not seem to be local but
rather those of eastern Algeria
A photograph of Zitouni was issued by the secret services
which could only have been a photo-fit, since no genuine photograph existed. It
is possible that the report of the importance of Zitouni and of his terrorist
exploits was likewise a fabrication. Western experts of the GIA and of the
Islamic movement in general have since come to the view that the last message
of the GIA announcing the assassinations and most probably also the first one,
with the seal of the GIA and the signature of Zitouni, were fakes. Some are
convinced that Djamel Zitouni was dead well before the abduction of the monks.
In contrast to the official story leading to a clear-cut
conclusion, the truth is still more obscured by the anarchic situation
surrounding the captivity and death of the monks, a situation that continues to
envelop the “disappearance” of hundreds of innocent civilians. A report
published by Amnesty International, January 1997, states that the level of
violence has not abated:
Killings and violations are carried out in the name of the
“anti-terrorist fight” by government forces and in the name of “holy war” by
some armed groups who define themselves as “Islamic.” . . . Since the beginning
of 1992 not a single allegation of torture, “disappearance” or extrajuridical
execution has been the subject of a thorough, independent and public
investigation. [Campaign Journal for AI, 81 (1997): 12]
In this tense conflict of armed opposition groups, factions
within the army, and local militia groups set up for security but with little
degree of accountability, the killing of the monks could have been carried out
by any of these groups or by accident in some encounter. The existence of
peace-loving monks amid these uncontrolled forces of violence, rapine, and
murder in an ethnic, cultural, religious, and political struggle brought them
to experience the seismic breakdown described by Bishop Claverie, before he too
became a victim of unidentified killers. He wrote:
The Church accomplishes its calling and its mission when it
is present where there is a tearing apart of humanity, that very crucifixion of
the flesh. Jesus himself died suspended between heaven and earth, as it were,
with arms outstretched so as to gather together the children of God, scattered
as they are by sin, isolated indeed and set up one against the other, indeed
against God himself. Jesus placed himself at the epicenter of this tragic
breakdown caused by sin. For in Algeria
Bishop Claverie, a native Algerian, was perhaps Fr.
Christian’s ideal in his complete love of his country and its people, in his
intuitiveness, and in the gift of expression that he, as a Dominican, knew how
to use to the full in his writing and pastoral work.[52]
A man of dialogue between cultures and religions, he had earned the nickname of
“Bishop of the Muslims.” Even after the beheading of the seven monks, he
refused to leave. He felt that his staying in Algeria
Pierre Claverie was the nineteenth priest or religious to be
killed in three years. He explained to the young people at Fanjeaux, in June
1996, the motivation that he shared with the monks and all these witnesses to
the faith:
Since the start of the Algerian drama we have often been
asked, what are you doing here? Why do you stay? Because of Jesus—there is no
other reason. It is not a matter of an interest to protect, of maintaining an
influence. . . . Because of Jesus—for it is he who suffers the violence which
spares nobody, crucified once again in the flesh of thousands of innocent
people. It is essential for the Christian to be present where there is
suffering and dereliction.[53]–55
Let the voice of our martyrs resound
In the June 27, 1996, London
Words to Inspire the World . . . . His words are an
exceptional testament in exceptional circumstances, but we might all do well to
follow their message, wherever and whatever we are. In a faith that so
passionately supports the sanctity of life, many of us quietly struggle to
understand the glory of martyrdom, what the Church calls “the supreme witness
given to the truth of the faith.” Countless volumes have been devoted to the
subject, but few words will have been so eloquent, or so readily understood, as
Fr. de Chergé’s honest paragraphs. His letter was a gesture of love to his
family, penned undoubtedly to comfort them in an inevitable time of great
distress and spiritual confusion; but within days of his death it has already
winged its way around the world. The murder of missionaries might well be
thought of as a relic of colonial history, but the fact is that the Church is
now more than ever on the front-line of conflict. Ask any missionary and they
will tell you that that is where the Church has to be, whatever the
consequences; but if anyone asks how death can be stared in the face with such
humility, just refer them to “Fr. Christian’s letter.”[54]
In response to this editorial column, Kelly received
hundreds of letters and phone calls from readers saying how moved and inspired
they had been by Fr. Christian’s Testament.
Not everyone saw it in this light. The London France France
The matter will be debated. It is worth noting that two
promoters of causes for canonization have been closely touched by the deaths of
the monks of Atlas. Abbé Joseph Chone, Promoter of the Causes of Saints, Paris,
was a fellow seminarian with Fr. Christian. Dom Armand Veilleux, OCSO, holds
this office for Cistercian causes. The canonical question can become technical
and abstract.
Not so the moving “Tribute From an Arab Brother” written by
Fr. Louis Wehbé of Latroun Abbey in Israel
Are you and your
brothers martyrs? I have not the least doubt about it. It is a martyrdom that
conforms most closely to that of Christ; it is a very pure form of martyrdom
that distinguishes itself from the attitude attributed to the early fathers
who, placing themselves on the side of the pure, appeared to be arrogant and
disdainful of their judges. Neither you nor your brothers wished for martyrdom,
because you did not wish that the Algerians and Muslims, whom you loved so
dearly, should pay the price of the grace of your martyrdom by offending God
and by bringing on themselves the condemnation of murderers. You and your
brothers had long ago given your lives. In July, 1994, you wrote to a little
girl: “If something happens to us, believe that the love of God for this people
allowed this to happen, and what would have been taken away thus, even
violently, was given.” For me it is beyond doubt that you and your
brothers died for Christ and the Christian faith. You did not look for death or
want to be heroes. You wanted to remain true to your gift of self and to your
witness, “to our religious vocation including the possibility of ‘martyrdom’”
(Letter of July 9, 1995). Your attitude could not be clearer or allow for any
confusion. On December 28, 1993, you yourself, Christian, wrote to Sayah
Attian, Emir of the GIA (Armed Islamic Group): “Our life as monks (ruhbân) binds us to God’s will for us,
which is a life of prayer and simplicity, manual labor, hospitality and sharing
with all, especially the poorest. These reasons for living are a free choice
for each one of us. They engage us until death. I do not believe that it would
be the will of God that you should be the instrument of that death.” What
did the GIA accuse you of to conclude that you deserved death? The Emir (Abou
Abdel Rahman Amin), the one who claimed responsibility for your abduction,
accused you of the following in his Communiqué No. 43, dated April 18, 1996:
the monks have “never stopped inviting Muslims to become Christian, displaying
their slogans and symbols and solemnly celebrating their feasts.” He declares
that “the monks who live amongst the faithful can legitimately be killed”;
“they live amongst the people and lead them away from the divine path by
inciting them to embrace Christianity.”
“It is also lawful to inflict upon them what was inflicted upon the infidels of
old when they are war prisoners: murder, slavery, or exchanging them for Muslim
prisoners.” It is, therefore, clear
that the GIA and its leader, Abou Abdel Rahmân Amîn, killed you in the name of
Islam and because of your Christian religion. The majority of the Muslim world
will certainly condemn these murders and will not recognize itself in the
narrow Islam of the GIA. It is evident that you died because you were
Christians and monks. In accordance with their principles, the GIA, in its
Communiqué No. 44, dated May 21, 1996, coldly justified the assassinations
committed, stating: They [the French] “have declared that they would not enter
into dialogue or negotiate with the Armed Islamic Group [GIA]. They interrupted
what they had started, and we have cut the throats of seven monks, faithful to
our commitment. Praised be God. And this was carried out this morning.” Christ
foretold this: “And indeed the hour
is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is doing a holy duty for God”
(Jn 16:2).[58]
In his “Faithful Reading of the Events,” Dom Bernardo focused
on what was clear. He wrote:
Let not diplomacy, politics or a non-transcendental view of
these events come to deprive us of the voice of our martyrs and silence the
clamor of their cry of love and of faith. From the martyrdom of spiritual
combat to the martyrdom of blood poured out, it is the same cry that calls to
forgiveness and love of one’s enemies. Life is stronger than death: love has
the last word![59]
The acts of the martyrs were communicated with great rapidity
among early Christians. The remarkable speed of communication in the case of
the Atlas martyrs is demonstrating some of the same response regardless of
precise labels of martyrdom. There is little sign of slowing in the flood of
publications. The first book appeared within a month, Sept Vies Pour Dieu et l’Algérie.[60] This work was the remarkable
achievement of Bruno Chenu, who had effectively covered the situation of the
monks of Atlas for La Croix. With
help from the monasteries of Bellefontaine and Tamié, he assembled the most
recent texts from Atlas tracing its spiritual journey. Before the end of
October a second and quite different kind of book was published. Les Martyrs de Tibhirine[61]
by Mireille Duteil is a triumph of research and analysis of events and affairs.
The author is an expert on Arab affairs, but the history, lives, and deaths of
the monks are shown in the fullest light. It is an invaluable record animated
by an obvious esteem for the martyrs of Tibhirine.
Christian’s Testament—Authorized Version & Variants
On June 2, 1996, Vatican Radio broadcast an improved English
translation of Fr. Christian’s Testament. The original French text was first
published by La Croix on May 28,
1996. From that first reproduction in La
Croix, based on the manuscript, one can trace divergent translations into
English. There are two very different versions, which are significant for the
interpretation of Fr. Christian’s words.
The first English translation was issued by the secretariat
of the Order, Rome
A second translation appeared in the Boston Pilot and The Universe
(possibly syndicated to other papers). This version was obviously based on the
French text in La Croix on May 28,
which made the first line, “Quand un A-DIEU s’envisagé,” into a large headline
so that it did not appear to be part of the text and was thus omitted in the
English.
The French did, however, keep the word “islamisme,” which in
the first English translation was mistakenly transcribed as “idealism.” It also
kept the invocation, In sha’Allah,
‘If God wills’, which was missing in the English.
The most difficult phrase to translate, even for French
speakers, was “en-visagé de toi.” The French original reads: “Oui, pour toi
aussi je le veux ce MERCI, et cet ‘A-DIEU’ en-visagé de toi.”
The first version of the English had: “Yes, for you, too, I
say this THANK YOU and this A-DIEU–to commend you to the God in whose face I
see yours.” The syndicated press version had: “Yes, for you, too, I wish this
thank-you, and this ‘adieu’ which is of your planning.” Finally, the authorized
version reads: “Yes, I also say this THANK YOU and this ‘ADIEU’ to you, in whom
I see the face of God.”
Other English versions appeared, one on the Internet, another
in the Religious Life Review (Dublin England the BBC radio asked to obtain the
exclusive transmission rights of the improved translation, which had been read
on Vatican Radio and published in The
Tablet (London
It was felt that an authorized version should be copyrighted
by the Order. After consultation between several English- and French-speaking
communities, an acceptable English translation was approved. This version has
been copyrighted in the interest of the integrity of the text, not to restrict
its distribution.[62]
It is reproduced below in the Appendix.
Testament of Fr. Christian – Commentary
“In praise of a
hyphen” is the title of an editorial by Fr. Ciarán O’Sabhaois.[63]
He wrote: “One of the most
extraordinary things in the Testament is his insertion of a hyphen into the
word ‘Adieu’ extending its meaning
from ‘Good-bye’ to the full richness
of its literal ‘To God’.”
This Testament of Fr. Christian was born out of the peril
from assassins over a prolonged period. Two dates are appended to the letter:
December 1, 1993, and January 1, 1994. They correspond to two stages of the
text. The first corresponds to the apprehension that followed the GIA’s
ultimatum of “death to all foreigners.” The second expresses a reaction to and
horror at the indifference of the French press to the massacre of twelve Croatian
workers near the monastery. (“I would like them to be able to associate this
death with the many other deaths which were just as violent, but forgotten
through indifference and anonymity”).[64]
The opening words “When an A-Dieu is envisaged” create, with the closing “A-Dieu—to commend you to the God whose face I see in yours,” a
perspective on the whole experience of a life already given to God (à Dieu). In
a simple gaze towards the face of God, Fr. Christian binds together the several
loves of his life. Death itself and the seeming enemy are seen in the face of
God.
As he bids his A-Dieu
to his loved ones, he also enfolds his killers in deep understanding of the
relationship between all human beings “envisaged” before God.
His opening A-Dieu
means both to God and goodbye.[65]
In facing death the words A-Dieu have
their full meaning in a life committed from the beginning in love (“Remember,
my life was given to God and to the
country”), a life continuing in fidelity to the children of Islam seen “in the
gaze of the Father as he sees them,” and concluding with his final thank you and A-Dieu commending his killer to God.
The concluding “A-Dieu en-visagé de toi” is almost impossible
to translate —the love of enemies to this extent is so unusual. “God is taking
his definitive face at the end of my life, and now that I am in front of him,
not only can I see how he looks at my Muslim Brothers, but His face has your
face, my Brother, who murdered me!”
Only a few months previously, Fr. Christian spoke to the
General Chapter of 1993 and expressed the same thought about the face of God.
He said, “We see that the Muslim tradition also knows how to pass on to others
the desire to see God, as the Koran says, ‘All will pass away but for God’s
face’.”[66]
In the end the face of God! The Islamic tradition seeking the
face of God is one of “the true strands of the Gospel” that Christian found to
be a positive challenge even in his monastic vocation. At Tibhirine, bell and
muezzin sounded out together from the same enclosure, bidding all to pray. Many
of the values of Islam are associated with monks: ritual prayer, prayer of the
heart, fasting, vigils, a sense of the praise of God and of God’s forgiveness,
a naked faith in the glory of the wholly Other and in the communion of saints.
Fr. Christian listed all these and went further than others in integrating
Muslim spiritual experience while remaining deeply and totally Christian. In
this knowledge and friendship (“in the certain knowledge of what I have
received from it”), it pained him to see that religion misinterpreted and
misapplied by its supposed followers: “I know also the caricature of Islam
which a certain kind of islamism encourages.”
Sadly he perceived that fanaticism (“a certain kind of islamism”) “encourages” the distortion (“caricature”)
of true Islam, not that Islam encourages fanaticism.
Fr. Christian’s words are an exceptional testament in
exceptional circumstances. Even more significant is the fact that his
experience is that of a community and not only of one person—an experience that
extended to close union with the Muslim community around the monastery.
The martyrdom of seven monks will cause a lull in that daily
contact, but their sacrifice may inspire even greater understanding in the
Muslim world and lead to spiritual growth between Islam and Christians. In the
words of Pope John Paul:
Today many consecrated persons are looking for and
finding—in such contacts—the traces of God’s presence, a presence guiding all
humanity toward the discernment of the signs of His will. Such a search proves
advantageous for consecrated persons themselves: the values discovered can in
fact prompt them to deepen their own understanding of the Christian practice of
contemplation, community sharing, hospitality, respect for persons.[67]
Last Lament
On Friday, May 30, Mgr. Henri Teissier, Archbishop of
Algiers, learned of the death of Cardinal Léon-Étienne Duval, and a few minutes
later of the discovery of the mutilated remains of the seven monks of Atlas.
This news was awaiting Dom Bernardo Olivera, abbot general, and Dom Armand
Veilleux, procurator general, who were flying from Rome not knowing what to
expect or whether or not there would be any remains of their brothers at the
requiem Mass. Archbishop Teissier was able to inform them about the remains and
suggest that the funeral Mass could be celebrated for both the monks and their
life-long champion in the basilica of Our Lady of Africa, his cathedral.
Cardinal Duval had helped the community of Atlas to survive
many crises and had grown very close to them and to the monks of Tamié in his
native Savoy Algeria France Algeria
The question of the place of burial for the monks was
discussed. The abbot of Bellefontaine, who was in touch with the relatives,
phoned to say that the families agreed with the monastic family in wanting them
to rest at Our Lady of Atlas. Some hesitation was expressed because of the
security risks, but the authorities respected these wishes.
Of more immediate concern to Dom Bernardo were the
difficulties about seeing the mortal remains and identifying the monks. The
presumed obstacles were again quickly removed by sympathetic higher
authorities. On Friday, May 31, the Cistercians were taken to the morgue of the
military hospital for this privileged but painful last fraternal service. Fr.
Amadeus remained outside praying while only Dom Bernardo and Dom Armand were
shown the coffins. The few words Dom Bernardo could permit himself afterwards
were, “In the face of what we saw next, we couldn’t help thinking of the
Precursor of Jesus, Saint John
Solemn requiem Mass was celebrated in the great shrine of Our
Lady of Africa on the Feast of the Holy Trinity, and accompanying Masses were
celebrated in cathedrals, monasteries, and churches around the world. Cardinal
Arinze was there to represent the Holy Father.[68]
The eight coffins were in the sanctuary; on each had been placed a large wreath
of flowers and a good-sized photo. In the large and palpably grieving gathering
of dignitaries of Church and State, of ordinary people of all faiths, Dom
Bernardo spoke movingly but simply, offering “the testimony of one monk to his
brother monks”:
The hidden voice
of the monks has remained silently in the cloister of Our Lady of Atlas for
more than fifty years. This same voice was changed during the course of the
last two months into a cry of love which has resounded in the heart of millions
of men and women believers and men and women of good will. Our seven brothers
of Tibhirine, Christian, Luc, Christophe, Paul, Michel, Bruno, and Célestin are
today transformed into spokesmen for so many stifled voices and unknown persons
who have given life for a more humane world. Our seven monks lend their voice
to me, too, today. . .
The witness of the
monks, like that of every believing Christian, can only be understood as a
prolongation of the witness of Christ himself...
Our brother monks
are a ripe fruit of this Church which is living its Pasch in Algeria Algeria
The abbot general ended with moving words of gratitude to the
Algerian people for the respect and love with which they had surrounded the
monks. After the Mass there were emotional expressions of that same love, and
sympathy, as people approached, tears in their eyes, to greet the monks who had
been spared and their brothers from Rome
The earthly passage of Christian, Luc, Christophe, Paul,
Michel, Bruno, and Célestin ended in the extreme isolation, simplicity, and
poverty of their burial at the now deserted monastery of Our Lady of Atlas. The
scene of that last lament, so pitiful and remote, cannot fail to be seen
against the background of the enduring grandeur of the Atlas
mountains and in the light of more eternal hills.
The events have had an unusual chronicler in the person of
Dom Bernardo Olivera, OCSO. His journal, extending to four long letters, is not
merely personal. He records events made sacred by the memory of the martyrs. He
writes with the brothers and sisters of the Order in mind. It is remarkable to
have this first-hand account of something of which the Order cannot yet see the
consequences. The burial, that strange but silent ending to a cruel and equally
silent drama, is best described from Dom Bernardo’s chronicle.
The burial took place on Tuesday, June 4, 1996, at Our Lady
of Atlas.[70]
In the words of Dom Bernardo:
A day humid and
gray: all nature seemed to be weeping for sorrow. A great display of police and
military when we got to Médéa and still more at the monastery. . . . The
coffins were carried by about thirty military cadets, all with great respect
and dignity. Behind the closed doors and in the most complete intimacy, I
preside over an extremely simple liturgy. . . .
Again the cadets
entered to take the mortal remains and carry them to the community cemetery.
The seven graves had been prepared. . . .
I said the last
prayer and they began to lower the coffins into the graves. It was already
13:15. Monsignor cast the first shovelful of earth into the grave of Michel and
I into that of Christophe: a group of neighbors continued the task. . . . At
that very moment the sun appeared.
The coffins
disappeared into the earth and we disappeared into the arms, the kisses, and
the condolences of innumerable neighbors of the monastery, who at the same time
thanked us for having buried the monks here. At 13:45 it was all over. . . . I
made a rapid visit round the monastery. With the idea of sending it to Madame
Lebreton, I took a Christ in olive wood which hung on the wall of the library.
In my heart a single phrase was resounding: “We will not
leave our dead alone, we shall come back!”[71]
Appendix
I. Text of Testament of Dom Christian [72]
When an “A-Dieu” takes on a face.
If it should happen one day—and it
could be today—
that I become a victim of the
terrorism which now seems ready to engulf
all the foreigners living in Algeria
I would like my community, my Church,
my family,
to remember that my life was given to God and to this country.
I ask them to accept that the Sole
Master of all life
was not a stranger to this brutal
departure.
I ask them to pray for me—
for how could I be found worthy of
such an offering?
I ask them to be able to link this
death with the many other deaths which were just as violent, but forgotten
through indifference and anonymity.
My life has no more value than any other.
Nor any less value.
In any case it has not the innocence
of childhood.
I have lived long enough to know that
I am an accomplice in the evil
which seems, alas, to prevail in the
world,
even in that which would strike me
blindly.
I should like, when the time comes,
to have the moment of lucidity
which would allow me to beg
forgiveness of God
and of my fellow human beings,
and at the same time to forgive with
all my heart the one who would strike me down.
I could not desire such a death.
It seems to me important to state
this.
I do not see, in fact, how I could
rejoice
if the people I love were to be
accused indiscriminately of my murder.
To owe it to an Algerian, whoever he
may be,
would be too high a price to pay for
what will, perhaps, be called, the “grace of martyrdom,”
especially if he says he is acting in
fidelity to what he believes to be Islam.
I am aware of the scorn which can be
heaped on Algerians indiscriminately.
I am also aware of the caricatures of
Islam which a certain islamism encourages.
It is too easy to salve one’s
conscience
by identifying this religious way
with the fundamentalist ideologies of the extremists.
For me, Algeria
I have proclaimed this often enough,
I believe, in the sure knowledge of what I have received from it,
finding there so often that true
strand of the Gospel,
learnt at my mother’s knee, my very
first Church,
already in Algeria
My death, clearly, will appear to
justify
those who hastily judged me naive, or
idealistic:
“Let him tell us now what he thinks
of it!”
But these people must realise that my
avid curiosity will then be satisfied.
This is what I shall be able to do,
if God wills—
immerse my gaze in that of the
Father,
and contemplate with him his children
of Islam just as he sees them,
all shining with the glory of Christ,
the fruit of His Passion, and filled
with the Gift of the Spirit,
whose secret joy will always be to
establish communion
and to refashion the likeness,
playfully delighting in the differences.
For this life lost, totally mine and
totally theirs,
I thank God who seems to have willed
it entirely
for the sake of that joy in everything and in spite of
everything.
In this thank you, which sums up my whole life to this moment,
I certainly include you, friends of
yesterday and today,
and you, my friends of this place,
along with my mother and father, my
sisters and brothers and their families,
the hundredfold granted as was
promised!
And also you, the friend of my final
moment, who would not be aware of what you were doing.
Yes, I also say this Thank You and this A-Dieu to you, in whom I see the face of God.
And may we find each other, happy
good thieves, in Paradise , if it pleases God,
the Father of us both. Amen. (In sha ’Allah).
Christian.
II. Message of John Paul II, Mass for the Martyrs of Atlas[73]
Dearest Brothers and Sisters,
With a keen sense of participation, I unite with you as you gather
around the altar to celebrate, in the sacrifice of Christ, the memory of your
seven confreres of the monastery of Our Lady of Atlas, at Tibhirine, in Algeria
How pertinent are these words of the Gospel! How appropriate
they sound, as we think of your seven confreres and of your present Capitular
meetings, which are taking place in the light of their witness! The Lord alone
can comfort his children in such dramatic trials. Faith in Christ, crucified
and risen, tears away the veil of suffering and makes us understand the
mysterious fecundity of the death of believers, whose life is not taken away
but transformed. I am certain that the sacrifice of the monks of Tibhirine has
not failed to provide special inspiration for your Capitular labors, enabling
each of you to meet with full openness of Spirit the two great challenges which
face you: that of a renewed fidelity to the radical following of Christ, and that
of communion within the great Cistercian family. Be certain of this: the blood
of martyrs is in the Church a force for renewal and of unity.
“At the end of the second millennium, the Church has become
once again a Church of martyrs” (Tertio
millennio adveniente, no. 37). The witness of the Trappists of Our Lady of
Atlas takes its place alongside that of the Bishop of Oran, His Excellency
Pierre Lucien Claverie, and of not a few other sons and daughters on the
African continent who, during this period, have given their lives for the Lord
and for their brothers and sisters, beginning with those who persecuted and
killed them. Their witness is the victory of the Cross, the victory of the
merciful love of God, who saves the world. The Testament that Dom Christian de
Chergé left behind offered to all the key for understanding the tragic
occurrence in which he and his confreres were involved, the final meaning of
which is the gift of life in Christ. “My life,” he wrote, “was given to God and
to this country.”
Venerable brothers and sisters, you are the custodians of
this memory, guardians in prayer, in common discernment, and in the concrete
directives which you decide upon, so that the memory of this event may be
fruitful in the future for Trappists and for the whole Church. In this rich
promise of hope, we invoke the abundance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit on
each of you and on the works of your respective Chapters, and we impart to you
with all our heart the Apostolic Benediction.
From the A. Gemelli Hospital, October 10, 1996
John Paul II
III. Homily – All Saints,
1996.
Abbot Etienne Baudry, Bellfontaine
“Who are these people dressed in white robes, and where have
they come from? These are the people who have been through the great trial;
they have washed their robes white again in the blood of the Lamb” (Rv 7:13–4).
Hearing these words, we cannot, at least I cannot, help
making a connection with what happened to our brothers of Atlas in Algeria last
spring, when we were celebrating Easter and Paschal time—the kidnapping and
tragic death of our brothers.
Along with this gift of their life, they have left us, under
the pen of Fr. Christian, a Testament to help us understand and read as
correctly as we can today what God was in the process of accomplishing in them
and through them. That is why, once again, I have been leaning over Fr.
Christian’s Testament to listen to him together with you, and to let him join
us.
But at the moment of doing so, I wonder if this is truly the
time and place to do it. In the end I decided yes, that this context is even
the most appropriate occasion to take another look and to understand, to let
him join us and question us.
What we are dealing with is not the narrative of a story at
the level of events that succeed each other and brush against each other as on
a television screen. It is a thrust into the depths that touches the one
central aspect of the mystery of Christ in his passing from death to life. The
brothers were summoned and interrogated at Christmas time, but it was during
Easter time that they began to follow the Lamb in earnest.
Appended to Fr. Christian’s Testament, written in the
shifting of the Old Testament being fulfilled by the sacrifice of the New
Testament, are two dates—December 1, 1993, and January 1, 1994. It seems to me
that these dates correspond to two stages of the text. The first is when Fr.
Christian notes, as if in passing, his reaction to the GIA’s ultimatum, which
warned foreigners that from then on they would be victims of violence. “If it
should happen one day,” wrote Fr. Christian, “and it could be today—that I
become a victim. . . .” Then, for us, his community
(his Cistercian family), his Church
(all of us), and his relatives
(represented here), he formulated four wishes that he would like us to take
into account: to remember, to accept, to pray for him, and to expand our
prayer.
To remember—that
is what we are now doing in the light and power of the memorial of the Lord. To
remember that his life and the lives of all seven were “given to God and to this country.”
A life given is the greatest witness. By it we come to a deep
unity with him who gave his life for us, with him in whom alone we in our turn
are able to give our life for our brothers and sisters.
Christian did not know that the sacrifice would come during
Easter time. He was not thinking so, even at the moment when he or they were
rudely awakened and kidnapped. But he knew well that when “that” happened, it
would be “paschal” by its very nature. And so it happened that the course of events
led to the meeting of the symbol and the sacrament.
“To accept that
the Sole Master of all life was not a stranger to this brutal departure.” A
heart-rending phrase for those nearest who have to experience it, yet also a
phrase as discreet as possible, and one that tries to express what only the
language of a love that is stronger than death can make comprehensible. At our
celebration at the General Chapter in Rome
“I ask them to pray
for me,” recalling that “my life has no more value than any other. Nor any
less value.” This word is a scandal for some. “So many people,” they say, “have
prayed for them . . . but they are dead.” But certainly Fr. Jean-Pierre, one of
the brothers who escaped, saw it differently. On the morning of the kidnapping
he said, “We must pray for them, they are on a mission,” and when their deaths
were announced, he concluded, “They have accomplished their mission!”
To expand their prayer:
“to link this death with the many other deaths which were just as violent, but
forgotten through indifference and anonymity.” Already “the good thief” who was
going to ask and offer forgiveness could not help enlarging his “me” when he
said, “Remember me in your kingdom! My life has no more value than any other,
nor any less.” From that moment his life was linked by an indissoluble bond to
so many others: “My life was given to God and to this country,” to this country
because first to God.
“An accomplice in the
evil.” Now, following in some way these four wishes, comes the act of
contrition that rises to his lips and flows from his pen: I know “that I am an
accomplice in the evil,” and that makes me “beg forgiveness of God and of my
fellow human beings.” He has perfect contrition even on the level of the text,
for to the forgiveness asked he adds, like a crown, his forgiveness given to
the one who “would strike me blindly,” “who would strike me down.”
Everything is said already in this text, which, it seems to
me, dates from the initial shock on December 1 and was never corrected or
touched up but was begun all over again on a deeper level on January 1. [The
second stage was the result] of a sharp inner debate that led to the
rediscovery or at least the revelation of a deep vocation ending in the
transfiguration of his already-given forgiveness.
The “debate” arose from scenes of atrocity and was very
personal; it arose from the assassination of the Croatians on December 14 and
from the Christmas Eve visit of Sayah Attiya with its consequences for the
community up to January 1 [1994]. At that point Christian was struggling. He
seemed to cry out, “I could not desire such a death,” only to add immediately,
with the calmness typical of his temperament, “It seems important to me to
state this.” He continued pondering on “the grace of martyrdom,” apparently
only to refuse it. He calls this martyrdom “murder” and refuses any joy from
it. He rejects with all his power the false interpretation that would identify
the true Islam with the caricature of Islamic extremism, which he obviously
cannot accept.
There is a message here for us and for our society, a message
that I cannot develop but that we must not forget as Christians of France or
elsewhere, and that must not be forgotten by the Muslims of Algeria or
elsewhere.
The thrust of the debate made him delve into his own special
vocation both as to its origin—impossible to describe here—and its Trinitarian
conclusion, expressed in the now well-known phrase describing the object of his
“avid curiosity.”
The whole mystery of All Saints is gathered together there. I
cannot help quoting it: “To immerse my gaze in that of the Father, and
contemplate with him his children of Islam just as he sees them, all shining
with the glory of Christ, the fruit of His Passion, and filled with the Gift of
the Spirit.”
At that time it is the mystery of joy that takes over, the
joy that he had just refused when confronted in his inner debate by so many
atrocities, for “if we remain silent, the very stones of the wadi will howl.” On the other side of
anger, a holy and necessary anger, joy may be welcomed, the joy of the Spirit
who creates communion, who restores the likeness while “playfully delighting in
the differences.” It is the joy of a vocation found, a life given up, “totally
mine, totally theirs” (solidarity), a life given up because God seems to have
willed it “for the sake of that JOY in everything and in spite of everything.”
Let it be enough now to recall the climax of his Testament,
which leaves each of us in a kind of sacred awe when assassination is envisaged
as “an A-Dieu” and the assassin becomes “the friend of my final moment,” in the
joy of finding “each other, happy good thieves, in Paradise, if it pleases God,
the Father of us both.”
Dom M. Étienne Baudry, OCSO
Abbot of Bellefontaine, Bégrolles en Mauges
IV. Message to our Christian Friends
The Young Muslims’ Collective of France
We have learned with dismay of the abduction of seven
Trappist monks in Algeria
For several decades the Islamic-Christian dialogue has been
developing, and this event will not destroy the profound desire to respect each
other’s differences, to listen to each other’s points of divergence, and to
meditate on the point on which we converge; over and above tolerance, it is
divine love and coming closer to God that guide our progress in order to tie
and retie our bonds as men of faith.
You are living now at the end of Lent, which concludes with
the meal shared by Jesus with the apostles. We pray to the Lord to accept our prayers
that his peace may reign in the world of humankind. Like the month of Ramadan,
Lent symbolizes another important moment for reflection in the world. Let us
share this striving to bring ourselves closer to God, to follow the path of the
prophets, and to speak of God’s messengers to coming generations for a better
future. O that today we might give witness to this ideal by our faith. With
kind regards. Published in France
Supplement
a) Atlas – Icon of our Vocation,
Archbishop Henri TEISSIER
Homily for the celebration
of the Cistercian Chapter
in remembrance of the seven
monks of Notre Dame de l’Atlas
Since you have asked me, as Archbishop of Algiers, to deliver
the homily at this Mass in remembrance of our seven brother monks during your
Chapter, I think I must focus our meditation on the place the monastery held in
the life of our local Church. Tibhirine was for us an icon of our vocation as
Christians seeking God in the land
of Algeria
To express, before your assembly, this exceptional link which
has been established during the years, between the Monastery of Atlas and our
Church of Algeria, I will take as my point of departure the “presentation of
the monastery to guests”, drawn up by Christian in collaboration with the
community, and by which, moreover, opens the book, “Seven lives for God and for
Algeria”. [74] “Men
” says this text, “continue to give
themselves here - that is to say, at Tibhirine - with a heart that is free and submissive to the humble and
hidden service of the Utter Greatness and
the Utter Charity of God, in the
praise of the Hours, the work of their hands and the total sharing of life in
community, according to the rule of Saint Benedict, and the spirit and
constitutions of the Order of Citeaux ”.
Let us note in passing that the main words of this
presentation were chosen with sensitivity to express the Christian Mystery and
also take into account spiritual harmonies proper to the Muslims: “with a free and submissive heart ” ..... “the Utter Greatness and Utter Charity of God”.
But we shall return later to this dimension of life at Tibhirine, too important
to be merely mentioned in passing.
A true monastery to uphold
our identity as Christians in diaspora.
It was first of all a community of contemplative life with
which the priests, religious men and women, and lay people of our Church went
to be united at Tibhirine. We are a very small Church. We all know one another.
Nearly all of us had a personal relationship with the monastery or with one or
other of the Fathers. I think there is no other monastery in the world which
has such a general relationship with the members of the local Church. Most of
the priests, religious men and women, as well as the laity living permanently
in the diocese had a personal bond with the monastery.
We are united with Tibhirine first of all because it was a
true monastery, a true community of prayer, working with their hands and
offering their guests the Gospel values radically lived in the monastic life.
Living in a society whose citizens are all Muslims and where manifestations of
Christianity would be out of place, we needed these strong times. Symbolically,
the only bell that still rang in Algeria
We needed this spiritual place from which radiated all the
richness of the monastic life with its nuances born of filial adoration,
fraternal welcome, openness to all, trusting simplicity, respect for others. I
knew, in Egypt , a comparable
radiation, exercised by the monasteries of Wadi Natroun in the Coptic
communities of Cairo
A monastery, sacrament
of our mission
What was peculiar to Notre Dame de l’Atlas compared with
other Cistercian monasteries was this engagement of the whole community in the
very mission of our Church. Of course, this engagement was lived in the
monastic mode, but profoundly bound up with the specific witness which is ours
in a Muslim country. The monastery was the contemplative community of a local
Church whose vocation is to be without frontiers, the local Church of a Muslim
people and of a society of which Islam is the traditional point of reference.
The community of Tibhirine lived this in its manner of
openness to its Muslim environment. In prayer always carefully prepared,
enlightened by counsels or intentions so rich in suggestion, the liturgy of the
monastery took on the whole life of the country with its religious and cultural
values, its battles, its lacerations and its hopes. The hospitality at the
monastery was equally open to everyone, each according to their need, the
Christian for the Eucharist, the Muslim for spiritual sharing, the poor to have
their needs attended to, the sick to be cured.
Let us return, in order to understand it, to the document of
presentation of the monastery. After the introduction of its foundation in the
Cistercian monastic life, the text continues: “Guests of the almost entirely Muslim Algerian people, these brothers
would like to contribute to witnessing that peace among peoples is a gift of
God given to men everywhere and at all times, and that it is up to believers,
here and now, to manifest this inalienable gift especially by the quality of
their mutual respect and support which requires a healthy and fruitful
spiritual emulation,
On behalf the the
praying people of Islam, they profess to celebrate this communion day and
night, developing and welcoming untiringly the signs, as perpetual beggars of
love, during their whole life, please God, in the enclosure of the monastery,
dedicated to the patronage of Mary, mother of Jesus, under the title of ‘Notre
Dame de l’Atlas’ .” (p. 24)
And now we have the second reason each of us had to unite
ourselves with the community of Notre Dame de l’Atlas. In participating in the
life of prayer of the community, in profiting by its spiritual welcome, we join
ourselves, certainly, to the Gospel values lived radically, as in every
monastic community, but we were above all nourished in our own vocation, in our
specific mission as the Church in a Muslim country, open to the values of its
spiritual tradition, offering gestures of solidarity and respect in our daily
relations with men and women of another religious community.
This is precisely how the monks lived, not only through the
service of the dispensary which Brother Luc ran, but also through the daily
collaboration of Christophe, Paul and Michel with the local people associated
in the garden work, through the relations of the porter, Fr Amédée with the
villagers, young and old, boys and girls who rang the bell at the small door
all day long, through the hospitality in the guest-house of Célestin, Christian
and Christophe, through the errands of Jean-Pierre to the nearby town, since
according to the terms of the presentation of the monastery, this was “a place of prayer and spiritual refreshment open to all whenever one came
seeking an atmosphere of silence and recollection, which would light up the
journey of a man or woman on the path of
life ...” (p. 25)
The sacrifice to be
accepted with them
And so this is the sacrifice God has asked of us through the
immolation of our brothers. This spiritual place where we found refreshment as
well as our Christian identity and our mission in Islam territory, has been
destroyed by criminal violence.
Yet, despite our suffering, how could we fail to unite
ourselves with the motivations which animated our brother monks since December
1993, after the first visit of an armed group to the monastery, when they chose
to remain in spite of the risks they were running? I was with them when they
took this decision, consciously, after a community discernment, but also each
one individually. How could they abandon the people whom God had sent them to
save, and also, their community life? How could they, who celebrated the
sacrifice of Christ every day of their life, refuse to take the risk of loving
unto death?
Already on 14th December 1993, meditating on the
assassination of the twelve Croatians, Fr Christian wrote: “No-one has greater love than this, to lay
down one’s life for one’s friends ”(Jn.
15:13). “Better do it in advance, and
for everyone, as Jesus did. In such a way that the one who believes he is
putting you to death will not take your life from you; unknown to him, this
gift has already been consented to, to him as to others”” (p. 135) A
meditation which Christian had already committed to his Testament drawn up some
months earlier: “If it should happen one
day - and it could be today - that I become a victim of the terrorism ... I
would like my community, my Church, my family, to remember that my life was
given to God and to this country”.(p. 210)
Thus, our brother monks with whom we were united - as we have
already said - at the same time the heart of our Christian identity and a
monastic expression of our common mission in Muslim territory, also walked
further than we on the path of a love which accepts all risk, but which forms
part of the vocation of our whole Church and of each one of us.
With you, with their families, with their neighbours of
Tibhirine, with many men and women of
good will in Algeria, in Morocco, in France and elsewhere, we are deprived of
their presence, of their welcome, of their support, but with you, with Amédée
and Jean-Pierre, with the community at Fes and with all the friends of the
monastery, we must offer their sacrifice and consent to it.
None of us, in our Church in Algeria, can imagine how they
could have gone, leaving the place of their spiritual solidarity to save their
lives, even though each one of us had so hoped before their abduction, and
still more after it, that the disarmed sincerity of their offering of life
would disarm the very ones who had abducted them, as Christian himself told the
meeting of the Ribat on the eve of the abduction: “If one offers oneself unarmed and sees that the other is capable of
allowing himself to be disarmed, this will make violence improbable”. (Ribat
no. 24). And in fidelity to Christian and to the Gospel, despite the violence of
which they were victims, we still believe in the efficacy of this disarmed
fraternity, an evangelical efficacy belonging to the Paschal Mystery.
Forty days after their sacrifice, came that of Mgr. CLAVERIE,
bishop of Oran
After such a reminder, there remains only one Question, which
is this: who will receive the vocation to inherit, with the faithful community
of Fes , the spiritual and missionary bequest
of our brothers of Notre Dame de l’Atlas? Our Church is waiting for the
brothers God will send. She needs them in order to live. The people of
Tibhirine are awaiting their return and guarding the monastery, which is,
nevertheless, left empty in an isolated region. Many Algerians, who have seen
as we have, in Christian’s Testament and the sacrifice of our brothers, a sign
from God, are awaiting this sign of trust and hope. Who will give it
henceforth?
b) Gethsemani Buddhist-Christian Encounter
(Gethsemani
Encounter of Buddhist-Christian Meditation, at Gethsemani Abbey , KY
The Importance of the Monastic Community and the Church in the
Contemplative Life . – Armand Veilleux.
The word "contemplation" is a beautiful and rich
word. It is also an ambiguous one, because of the various ways in which it has
been understood in the Christian tradition. The expression "contemplative
life", used in the title of this talk, does not have the same ambiguity.
It expresses very well what I consider to be the most important dimension of
contemplation. Contemplation, as I see it, is not an isolated act, some kind a
peak experience attained in some rare occasions. It is a way of life.
As Christians, we have our spiritual roots in the religious
experience of Israel , and
the main characteristic of the religious experience of the people of Israel
The God of the Bible and the Father of Jesus Christ, is
neither someone far distant in Heaven who cannot be reached by human beings,
nor someone who deals with isolated individuals. Our God wants to establish
deeply personal relationship with each one of us, but always reminding us that
we are part of a people, of a family of believers, of a family of nations. The
God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The God of Jesus Christ, who is the first born
of a multitude of believers.
For that reason, there is an essential relationship between
contemplative life and the experience of community and church. Christ is the
Sacrament of Salvation, because he is the perfect visible manifestation, the
perfect incarnation of the Father's desire of salvation for the whole
humankind. The Church, that is, the community of those who believe in Christ,
is the visible manifestation of the same reality under the sign of a visible and
active communion in love, faith and hope. To receive Christ's message is to be
called to follow him with others and to embody his message of universal love in
our life of service, worship and universal compassion, with others. A monastic
community is a particular way of realizing that mission and that sacrament.
This, of course, can be lived in various ways. I will speak
from the experience of a coenobitic monastic tradition that follows the Rule of
Saint Benedict and that has been handed down to me through the Cistercian way
of life.
The only way to speak about such reality is to speak from
experience. I could speak from my own experience, sharing with you my desires,
my trials and my failures, but also my ongoing commitment to this contemplative
search. I could also speak from the experience of all those who have shared
with us what they have tried to live, through their teaching and their
writings. And the body of Christian and monastic literature on contemplative
life is very large. I have rather chosen to present to you the experience of a
concrete community of Christian monks who have recently achieved, through their
martyrdom, the ultimate realization of their contemplative community
experience. They developed that experience through several years of common
life, and showed its authenticity by facing death together. What they lived was
particularly well expressed in a short text written by one of them.
You have already understood that I am talking about the
community of O.L. of Atlas, in Algeria
That small monastic community was a typically Christian
community, that is, not a group of people who had chosen each other, but a
group of persons who had chosen the same vocation, or rather who had all been
called to the same mission. The history of the community is complex. Founded as
a refuge by a group of monks from Slovenia
in 1934, it soon became a regular foundation of a French abbey, when Algeria Algeria Algeria
Let us now look at some aspects of their experience through
some passages of Christian's Testament (which was a text written on the day
when the first threats against their life were made):
If it should happen one day... that I become a victim of the terrorism
which now seems ready to encompass all the foreigners living in Algeria
There are several elements of great significance in that
short sentence. Christian wants his community, his Church, his family to
remember something. His life has not been a solitary relationship between him
and God. He is aware of belonging to a community (my community); to a Church
(my Church) and to a natural family (my family). All those relationships were
very important for him. But more important was the fact that his life did not
belong to him. It had been given. And it had given not only to God but also to
this country, that is, Algeria
That radical detachment was not something done one day once
for all, and done alone. It was a common experience he had done with the rest
of his community. In their last circular letter, in December 1995, the brothers
of Atlas said, speaking of a possible death: "the violent death of one of
us or of all of us together would be simply the logical consequence of all the
forms of renunciation we have already done: of family, country, community in
order to follow Christ..."
Because of all these encompassing forms of renunciation, the
real community of Christian and of his brothers his made up not only of the
twelve monks of Tibhirine and Fès, but also of the members of their respective
family, and of all the Algerian people, whom they loved.
Christian loves them so much that he cannot desire martyrdom,
since this would be to desire that someone whom he loves should commit a
terrible crime against the God of live.
I don't see, in fact, how I could rejoice if the people I love were
indiscriminately accused of my murder. It would be too high a price to pay for
what will be called, perhaps, the "grace of martyrdom", to owe this
to an Algerian, whoever he may be, especially if he says he is acting in
fidelity to what he believes to be Islam.
Someone who has reached that level of purity of heart is a
real contemplative. And this is the deep relationship between community life
and contemplative life. We must now read the most important section of
Christian's text:
"... my most
insistent curiosity will then be set free. This is what I shall be able to do,
if God wills, immerse my gaze in that of the Father to contemplate with him His
children of Islam as he sees them, all shining with the glory of Christ, fruit
of His Passion, filled with the Gift of the spirit whose secret joy will always
be to establish communion and to refashion the likeness, playing with the
differences."
In everything that has been said and written about inter-religious
dialogue, I don't think there is anything whatsoever that has reached such a
depth. On the one hand their is this contemplative attitude that wants to see
through God's eyes and contemplate all his children of Islam (of Buddhism, of
Hinduism, of Israel
Then, Dom Christian thanks God for his life:
"This life lost, totally mine and totally theirs,
I thank God who seems to have wished it entirely...
In this THANK YOU which is said for everything in my life, from now on,
I certainly include you, friends of yesterday and today, and you, O my friends
of this place..."
Then comes the most mysterious and most beautiful part of the
text. At the beginning of the Testament there was a kind of sub-title:
"Quand un A-Dieu est en-visagé" The French word A-Dieu is much
stronger than the English equivalent "Farewell". (Actually, it
corresponds to the original meaning of Good Bye). Then there is a play with the
French word en-visagé; which means "envisaged", contemplated, but can
also mean, in the line of thought of Lévinas, en-visagé: that is something that
has received a visage, or has been transformed into a visage.
With this in mind we can understand the final part of the
message, where Christian speaks to the person who might take his life:
And you too, my last-minute friend, who would not have known what you
were doing.. Yes, for you too I say this Thank You and this A-Dieu
"en-visagé de toi": that is, commending you to the God who has taken
a visage in you (or in whose face I see God).
This capacity of seeing God's face, God's incarnation, in the
person who is slitting your throat is certainly the fruit of a profound
contemplative life lived in deep relationship with a group of brothers, with a
Church and with the whole human family.
The community of O.L. of Atlas was an ordinary small monastic
community, living a life of solitude, prayer, work and silence. When it became
dangerous for foreigners and especially for Christians to stay in Algeria France
Does all of that has anything to do with contemplative life?
Of course it has. It was their presence, not as individuals, but as a Christian
community in a Muslim world that gradually enabled them to see God – not an
abstract God, but a God who had been "en-visagé", that is, who had
assumed a face in each one of those Muslim brothers, including the one who
might slit their throats.
And the story has not stopped with their death. Because of
what these very humble and simple monks lived, and because of the way they
died, millions of people, including millions of Algerian Muslims, have also
seen something of God's face in them. Contemplative life has no frontiers.
Discussion (Report, Maibag, US
Region, Nov-Dec 1996)
“Forgiveness & Karma”, Dom
Bernardo Olivera
In his letter, Christian explains the motives that led the
monks of Atlas to remain there. In the final sentences he speaks directly to
his murderer and addresses him as his friend. “his unseen friend”, and
expressly forgives him. Then he says that when he, Christian, stands before the
face of God and rejoices in Him he hopes that his unknown friend will be at his
side.
When the discussion began, several offered sympathy to Armand
and the Trappists for their loss. Then one of the Buddhists, an American, asked
what about the bad karma that accrued to the murderers. Did Christianity have
anything to say about that? Several Christians tried to answer but not very
successfully. Finally, Bernardo Olivera, Abbot General of the Trappists, who
was in the audience, was asked if he could respond. Bernardo spoke of his
personal relation with each of the monks of Atlas. As Abbot General he had participated
in some of the discussions with the monks of Atlas and had spoken to each of
them at length on a number of occasions concerning the possibility of being
murdered. Bernardo said that he spoke from deep knowledge of each monk and from
his own heart. None of the monks wanted an evil to fall upon those who killed
them, neither in this life nor hereafter. He knew that he was not well
acquainted with Buddhism and possibly did not really understand what karma
meant. Speaking as a Christian, he forgave every one and any one who had
anything to do with the death of these monks. This forgiveness was not simply
an intellectual idea but from the bottom of his heart. He spoke for himself,
for the dead monks and for every member of his Order that he had spoken to.
This forgiveness included a gift of love that wished the best for those men.
Like Christian he, too, prayed for the men who killed the monks. He knew that
it was done out of a real ignorance and a perverted zeal for God. He, too,
hoped with all his heart that the killers will some day stand before the face
of Cod along with the monks of Atlas and with all the monks and nuns of his
Order.
When the Abbot General sat down, there was silence in the
hall for a few moments. Then the person who posed the question got up and said
that it was the first time that it occurred to him that forgiveness could
destroy negative karma. The response gave him a lot of food for reflection.
For the rest. of the meeting the intervention of Dom Bernardo
was frequently mentioned by the Buddhists as one of the most enlightening
moments of the conference.
c) Spiritual Struggle of Monks in Algeria
Abbots and Abbesses of France
One week after the
abduction of the monks of Our Lady of Atlas, the Trappist abbots and abbesses
of France
Our brother monks of Algeria Algeria Algeria
The very tactful and capable press coverage of these heated
events has given rise to considerable emotion and sympathy in our country,
which has touched us greatly. We would like to thank everyone for this.
As no progress has been made, there is scarcely any news.
Therefore, we risk forgetting the Brothers who at this very moment are
undergoing, we continue to hope, a very important spiritual struggle, not only
for themselves but even more so for the good of the country to which they found
themselves called to follow their monastic life. Consequently, it would be tragic
if the meaning of this struggle were falsified or distorted.
The presence of these monks in Algeria
In the past, our Abbot General, Dom Bernardo Olivera, and,
more recently, our Procurator General, Dom Armand Veilleux have discussed this
very point with each of the Brothers and have confirmed them in their special
vocation.
In this document, we, the Superiors of the Trappist
monasteries and convents of France
wish to state that there is no other possible explanation of the reasons for
the presence of these monks in Algeria
– These monks are
first and foremost guests of a foreign and independent country which welcomes
them with all of the generosity for which it is well-known. This situation,
like the monastic vocation itself, imposes on them an obvious duty of impartial
reserve towards Algerian society in general and towards political parties in
particular. They never departed from this position of absolute neutrality.
– The presence of
their monastery in the Atlas Mountains is not quite as strange as it might
seem, since this is a region where very ancient traces of Christianity are
still quite visible, and our brother monks of Tibhirine, far from being unaware
of the present religious realities of that country, have been able to find in
their contact with Islam a very precious and very fertile source of dialogue,
of sharing and of prayer.
– The monks have long
since disposed of the properties that they had inherited. They have chosen to
live more simply from work in their garden, like and with their neighbours. It
is in this close neighbourliness, on a daily basis, that they have most
experienced the priceless tenderness which the ordinary people of Algeria
– There is, of course,
the doctor. Everyone speaks of him. Since he has been there for fifty years it
is obvious that his presence and his work have greatly influenced the history
of this monastic community and of the local population. But it would be
unthinkable even to suspect that he had agreed to “negotiate” conditions under
which he might be allowed to practice his profession, even for an instant.
At this point in time, only our prayer can effectively
reunite our Brothers. But our vigilance is no less essential so that they will
never lack the strength of our love and of our intercession.
(Translation: L. & V. Devlin)
d) Representatives of the Muslims of France
Paris
Letter to the Abductors of the seven Trappist Monks from
Tibhérine
In the name of God, the Clement and Merciful one:
You have within your power of Life and Death seven Trappist
monks abducted on 27th March from their monastery of Notre Dame de l’Atlas de
Tibhérine.
You have within your power of Life and Death seven elderly,
harmless men who have struck you no blow nor inflicted any malice upon you.
You have within your power of Life and Death seven men of
Faith who have consecrated their lives to prayer, contemplation and to the
service of God.
You have within your power of Life and Death seven people who
have chosen for many years to be your neighbours and have preferred you to
other people and other places.
You have within your power of Life and Death seven
peacemaking individuals who, although knowing the danger they lived in,
remained faithful to their calling and to their charitable work.
You have within your power of Life and Death seven men whose
families and loved ones tremble at the lack of clarity of their condition and
the uncertainty of their fate.
You have within your power of Life and Death seven
defenceless hostages threatened with having their throats cut if other
prisoners are not freed.
But what would the
freedom of those people be worth if owed to the blood of these innocent men?
All these considerations should lead you to liberate IMMEDIATELY the seven
monks of Tibhérine and to grant them safeguard and protection.
If these men are detained in the name of Islam, then all
Muslims, whether they wish it or not, are from this moment responsible for
their lives as it true that:
“He who kills a man who, himself, has not killed, or who has
committed no violence on Earth, is considered as if he had killed all men; and
he who saves a single man, is considered as if he had saved all men,” . (Koran, Sourate V, Al-Ma’Idah, verset 82)
If these men are detained because they are monks, then all
Muslims, particularly the Sunnites, are obliged to preserve their lives for it
is said:
“You will avoid the killing of monks and rabbis unless they
have been aggressors” (La RISALA, Ibn Abi
Zayd Al-Qayrawani, Chapter on the “Jihad”)
We ask you as
representatives of the Muslims of France to give a guarantee of the lives and
safety of our seven compatriots and to bring about their return to liberty as
quickly as possible.
(Translation: L. & V. Devlin)
e) Tibhirine. (6 weeks after abduction)
There's fog creeping round
the trees, the still hills,
it wraps up the bird-song.
No echo from this last as on
a morning when fiery red
great warming sun
hurls golden beams through
the clear, clean, clinging air,
burnishing every colour
with glow;
swelling each wondrous thing's particularity;
spinning round each mating song
a weave of magic:
flashing forth ‘self‑expression’
which catches my attention,
lifting my heart
to Him — of all this
the Start.
But too, the fog creeps
around my soul.
Our seven brothers of Tibhirine,
Oh! where are they now?
. . . . .Gone the
dear Christ from his throne,
closed the doors of Mary's house,
snuffed out the contest in zeal . . . . .
closed the doors of Mary's house,
snuffed out the contest in zeal . . . . .
Are they
in pain? in chains?
in dark? in hell?
Well-hidden by wicked men –
dark deed which Love does condemn.
A wound to Citeaux's choirs:
whose psalms, which rise as spires,
implore Love's graciousness
to gather those seven men
as chicks by their mother hen.
Fr. Martin, Nunraw
f) After Atlas Mass,Trinity Sunday 1996
St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh
O Tibhirine, O Tibhirine,
a mother distraught,
whose land has been harrowed
by fear and despair,
from anger and hating and killing
by unnatural men.
You've suffered and wept –
unnoticed by media and press;
our shame, we didn't care less.
But now there's come home
right into our hearths,
your pain and your sorrow,
too deep and too vast
to relate.
Your thousands, your few,
unknown, those you knew –
we shared in your grief
as best as we could,
on this festive day.
Especially among them our seven,
who followed the Lamb
to adorn your dear land,
vowed lovers of you and your children;
they too were your children,
were victims of those angry men,
who slew them because they were Christians,
reply to a blackmail that failed.
A text from the lectern was read.
We listened …… how poignant its words …
Dom Christian's own passion unfolded.
Well-knowing the danger he lived in,
how soon would his death be his womb?
Prophetic, precise and assured,
yet gentle and trusting,
no pity for self,
refusing to blame;
even
forgiveness for him who would kill him,
make merry with him in the Vision
— O mystery of love. —
And gratitude vast
from future to past
for family, Citeaux, Islam and God,
illumined with happy ‘A-Dieu!’
As Christian confessed,
did we to ourselves
“Will we thank our God in testing to come,
to even shedding our blood?
Will we thank the one
when his work's being done
for seeing God’s face in his face?”
For each monk a candle was lovingly lit,
the seven incensed as was fit;
embedding in feelings
by symbol and fire,
the mem'ry of Love's perfect choice.
By weaving of violin and organ and choir
the scene was enriched as they sang,
to Puccini's reflections,
‘Eternal rest grant unto them.’
O yes, it was true,
a tear from each eye,
the pathos … a sigh …
But joy to the fore
then sprang through us all
with thoughts of those martyrs –
how nobly they'd answered their call!
Fr. Martin, Nunraw
g) MORE ALIVE THAN EVER
by Marie Romanens
La Croix 29 May 1996
(“… a remarkable reading of the Testament
of Fr. Christian”,
Père Philippe, Tamié)
Père Philippe, Tamié)
By the time this issue of Actualité Religieuse reaches you,
it will be a month and a half since the murder of the seven Trappist monks in Algeria
The thread of physical life was suddenly snapped. Yet, these monks are
more alive than ever: their life shines forth with dazzling brightness,
disconcerting more than a few, in the tidal wave which has unfurled since the
news broke. For there is a thread which can never be severed: the bond between
men persists beyond any death. To an outstanding degree, the monks were aware
of their responsibility for this precious and fertile bond of humanity. Despite
all security considerations, they decided to remain in Algeria Algeria
This “worse” was doubtless the trial of the agony. In the face of
inhuman dereliction, they had to overcome the most deeply rooted visceral
reactions, those which drive every individual to seek comfort, well-being,
safety and protection. Above all, they confronted the emotions which engulf
every human being when the final hour approaches: the terrible anguish before
non-being, when nothing remains and all passes away and ones being is hemmed in
by the unknown of a nameless black hole .... above all, they confronted the
forces of destruction: those in their murderers of course, but also –
and this may surprise some people – their own. “I have lived long
enough to know that I am an accomplice in the evil which seems, alas, to
prevail in the world, even in that which would strike me blindly.” writes
Father Christian de Chergé in his last testament. The place of the shadow is
not denied, it is fully recognised. Total lucidity. The monks did not see
themselves on the side of the “good”. To do this would have made them victims
of the “wicked”, and this would probably have given them an excuse for leaving
double quick. No! The demands of truthfulness led them to greater
self-knowledge: they recognised that they too, like everyone else, had their
own share of inhumanity. They accepted their responsibility for the existence
of evil: when there is a failure to respect the other or oneself, when “I” and “Thou”
cannot co-exist. The forces of destruction are not limited to visibly violent
acts. They are also at work in a hidden fashion in a thousand acts and words in
the daily life of each person: when the eye refuses to see, the hand to stretch
out, the ear refuses to hear and the heart remains uncaring, when words become
wounding, thoughts imprisoning judgments and misunderstanding rules. The forces
of destruction are constantly at work - separating, severing bonds, opposing
and, by denying being, they become pitilessly murderous. The attitude of the
monks contrasted starkly with that of fundamentalists, who fail to recognise
the violent impulses to which they are prey. For them, only the other is the
bearer of “evil”. By their radical attempt to free themselves from the enemy,
fanatics have the illusion that Good and Evil can quickly be separated. But day
after day they sink deeper into a process of death which will not let them go.
The Trappists did not try to deny their responsibility. They had not
been spared inhumanity, unlike most men and women who pay it not a thought. By
recognising their imperfection and facing up to the carnal nature of their
being, they were able to go further, to reach a space where the strength of the
bond triumphs. This bond is acheived first with oneself: through acceptance of
all aspects of oneself, even the most disreputable. Then the bond can be
extended to others, to what is best in them and to what is worst. This
acceptance - of both self and the other - can then bear its full fruit. Then
the outrageous abundance of this total commitment blossom in a true union.
Then, from the very heart of the agony the song of gratitude for the gift of
Life can be sung. Beyond the horror of murder, this thanksgiving embraces all,
for the bond of the One who is alive has now proved victorious:
“And also you, the friend of my final moment, who would not be aware
of what you were doing. Yes, I also say this Thank You”
Translation: M.C.G.
h) Video— Atlas Presentation
Santa Rita Abbey, Arizona
You might be interested in the genesis of this
video. At Fr. Jean Pierre's request I brought home with me the slides he had
brought to Mondo Migliore (General Chapter Oct.1997). I had duplicates made so
as not to risk the originals during the process.
Two young people in Tucson
The translation of the text was made here, as
best we could.
A copy of the video is being sent to each our
houses in the U.S. and Canada , and also--in the appropriate format – to
each of the houses in France
All of us here at Santa Rita feel blessed at
the privilege of getting to know better the faces of these Seven.
Mother Beverly Aitken, Prioress
When
Abraham. . . (Music)
When Abraham and.
Millions of stars in the sky
Walked in the heart of the Eternal
When Abraham and.
Millions of stars in the sky
Walked in the heart of the Eternal
When
Abraham. . .
When Abraham and. . .
Millions of moons and suns
Shone out to the stars of the Eternal.
When Abraham and. . .
Millions of moons and suns
Shone out to the stars of the Eternal.
W
e walk in a great desert
We walk … the light
We walk, pilgrims on this earth
We walk to become their brothers.
We walk … the light
We walk, pilgrims on this earth
We walk to become their brothers.
Our monastery has chosen to
nestle in the welcoming foliage of this good old oak tree. There, Tibhirine,
and since 1988, at Fés in Morocco There, under the gaze of her who is all
unified and prayerful in love, all holy Miriam, Marie The mother of this Jesus
of whom we are the brothers With us she is there on the mountain Notre Dame de
l'Atlas" is our name.
When
toward … the setting
of the Orient towards the Occident
Millions of hearts of children, given,
Awoke in the heart of the Eternal
of the Orient towards the Occident
Millions of hearts of children, given,
Awoke in the heart of the Eternal
When
… toward the setting
of the east toward the west
Children of all confessions
awoke in the heart of the Eternal
of the east toward the west
Children of all confessions
awoke in the heart of the Eternal
We
walk in a great desert
We walk …
We walk …
In search of the One In desire
for the Unique. Pray-ers among other pray-ers. We live together the adventure
of a community existence in the manner of the Gospel. This is not easy. There
are many ways of following Jesus.
In the … of God We have received
a guide, Benedict. An Italian, born around 480, near Rome
This Benedictine Rule is for us
within the great monastic tradition the word of a spiritual father showing us
the way of life. Listen, my son, you will arrive in progress of conversion and
of faith.
So, we are Benedictines, but this
is not all. At the Benedictine monastery of Molesmes in France Dijon
St. Bernard entered in 1112/13
with thirty companions He would leave a strong mark on the nascent Order by his
personality, his spiritual teaching and even more: his holiness
In the 17th century after a long
period of laxity abbot de Rance effected the reform of his monastery of La
Trappe in Normandy
We are today throughout the world
men and women a great Cistercian family united by a "Charter of
Charity"
Each autonomous monastery is
connected to a filiation. So N.D. of Atlas is the daughter of N.D. of
Aiguebelle in Drôme.
Monk: but what is the gist of who
we are?
One who like Jesus, our Lord and
Master does not marry remains alone, monk, monos. He dwells with himself, he digs
out this solitude like a well from which will spring up communion. He explores
the silence in search of a sure word that might hold fast. He offers to the
Word the shelter of his conscience, the refuge of his heart so that in His
goodness He might place there His presence the fire of His Spirit to share.
Our life is a long, patient, and
monotonous effort, a combat each day to become peaceful, disarmed, unified,
conformed to Jesus, the Unique and Beloved of God, Prince of peace, conqueror
by obedience.
Father, may your will be
done."
One among us, elected by his
brothers, holds his place: that of servant, that of pastor giving his life for
his sheep. Abbot, prior, he guides, accompanies, teaches.
This monastery is not a museum.
Nothing exceptional. There live there very ordinary brothers in Algeria as in Morocco
One would wait until 1934 to see
come from the east Yugoslavian monks, their liberty threatened, looking for a
land of welcome to live there in peace. Established first at Ouled-Triff then
at Ben-Chicao the little group taken h1 hand by the abbey of Aiguebelle settled
here in the area of Tibhirine on March 7, 1938. And now at the call of the
church in Morocco there is
this annex at the gate of Fes .
Fifty years and more. Many a
tempest weathered storms threatened . . . was not lacking and God permitted
that this house hold fast. A house to shelter his name and all these lovely
names: house of peace, of mercy, of tenderness, Our Lady of Atlas house of
prayer, for all the peoples house open. The retreat house welcomes those who
desire to live a time of retreat, of desert. At the porter's lodge at the
dispensary with Brother Luke ties are established with the neighbourhood, ties
which bind our hearts and bring us into solidarity with a shared history.
A house open to the streets –
this is vital but there is the cloister to shape out the indispensable interior
– and what is done, inside, hidden in
this dwelling? This house is a workshop –
Benedict would have it so – a
school of the Lord's service, the school
of Jesus
The sharing of joy and troubles,
almsgiving, fasting, prayer.
According to the work of God in
us Opus Dei does not dispense us from all labour, all concern. They will be
truly monks, says St. Benedict if they work with their hands. There are
different employments, all these things you need to do so that the house be
human, fraternal There is the land to cultivate to render it nourishing and livable-Vegetable
garden, orchard, bee hives Flowers too.
Work itself is shared in
association with a few neighbours for things grown for market there are sown
there tomatoes, turnips, eggplants. greens. And in this God's market little
seeds of peace, of friendship, of trust. Who knows? The wind uses them to make
the earth fruitful here, elsewhere.
And we are happy to be able to
live together here as brothers, residents on a welcoming land, a little cell of
the Church among others, attached, they too, to this land, to its people.
After a long time of reflection,
of maturing, postulate, novitiate, temporary commitment-five years or more,
there is solemn profession. Freely, the one who has begun to run commits
himself in the community. He makes a vow of stability in church with his
brothers, he renounces all.
He is going to stay there and
endure relying on the fidelity of God. But stability doesn't mean being settled
in. Come. . .
We are pilgrims, people on the
way, seekers. Oh! Do you know what Benedict proposes to us to accomplish this
journey? A ladder. The ladder of humility to go to the most real within me To
God it raises me and makes me pass to the most real in Himself, . . . to the
praise of His glory.
A combat, a house cloistered a
way within the limits of a ladder. Lies there withal for happiness? "Let
us seek a workman in the crowd of humankind", the Lord says. "Who is
he who loves life and desires to see good days?" The monk, the Christian,
the believer, the human being as a question –
and he answers "Here I am.
We love life. Then, we are going
to exert ourselves to live it to the full day and night, night and day. Called
in the night we rise to keep watch awaiting the daylight. Called again six
times a day we leave our work, our occupation to offer to God a response, a
praise morning and evening at the third, the sixth, the ninth hour-Tierce,
Sext, None-and then at Compline when the time for rest has come and so on until
the last hour of death welcomed.
Finally, as this monk is said to
keep quiet, man of silence, yes – but
first he is a professed, he who professes, he who proffers reading, reciting,
murmuring, psalming, meditating praying the word of life. The silent heart
stores up all these things like Mary. He ruminates them, he feeds on them in
desire. Always.
So then, living monks, we desire
for ourselves, for all our brothers and sisters of this world good days and we
believe that they come to them where the heart that is poor receives this
happiness promised to all humankind manifested in Jesus Christ – this happiness that a merciful God desires to
be able to live together, all under His gaze, one in His love, for his joy of
the Father.
(The dots represent words the translator
wasn’t able to decipher from the tape.)
i) Personality of the Year
Award,
by the Belgian Daily Newspaper
Report from Brussels
Catholic World
Today (Global Catholic Radio),
Broadcast
Josef
Lopusznzski, Presenter:
“As Belgium still reels from revelations about the corruption of the
authorities, and the inefficiency combined with
the lack of co-operation surrounding the affair of the missing and
murdered children, a very special ceremony has taken place at the National
Theatre in Brussels
This year the
Personality of the Year award, by the
Belgian Newspaper, La Libre, has paid homage to the two groups of people who
have been the victims of crimes against humanity, children, murdered and missing, victims of
pedophile rings, and Bishop Claverie and
the seven Monks of Tibérine killed in Algeria.
Messenger
Hand and bird, earth and heaven, ourselves and the victims, the
artist wished to perpetuate the life of the innocent – ‘they live on’.
|
At the highly
emotional ceremony, the association of the two awards, for the child victims of
crime and the monks murdered by terrorists was given special significance by
the celebrated Belgian artist and sculptor, Jean-Michel Folon. in the words
"Innocence assassinated". Himself the father of a handicapped child
he said, "We live in a strange period of time in which one tragedy follows
another. When someone assassinates a child, it is innocence which is
assassinated. When someone assassinates monks, it is innocence which is
assassinated." Every thing which touches innocence, all the problems
concerning infancy, every injustice, stirs me to the depths …
I believe that
killing a child, is killing the child
deep within each one of us.
Receiving the
award on behalf of his martyred brothers,
Fr. Jean Pierre, one of the two monks who escaped the massacre in Algeria
"We must
never despair of man", he said, "As long as the monks were animated
by this faith they could not quit their
post in Algeria
We must believe
in the beauty of the fruits of reconciliation with our Muslim brothers",
he concluded.
Present at the
ceremony were the parents and families of the missing children, abbots, monks
and nuns of the Cistercian Order, various Belgian dignitaries, and readers of
La Libre, the newspaper which made the awards.” (End of Broadcast).
The Cistercian (Trappist)
monasteries of Atlas (Fes ), Aiguebelle,
Westmalle, Scourmont, Orval, Nunraw, Chimay, Soleilmont, Klaarland, Brialmont,
were represented at the award for their Brothers of Atlas. The writer was
invited to attend this unique award
presentation in Brussels Glasgow
j) Icon of Sancta Maria
 |
To the Memory of
Monks of Atlas
by Sr. Peter,
Holy Cross Abbey, Whitland
Seven candles denote the seven monks who died.
At Profession they placed their ‘vows’ on the altar. We have not been
asked to shed our blood – they did so.
‘Sancta Maria–Mater
Dei’. How often did they monks pray, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us
sinners now and at the hour of our death”.
Our Lady’s outer garment is painted brown, which denotes the
earth – everyday ordinary things. Within it is yellow (as in the halo) since
‘she is all glorious within’.
Three stars, – on her head and shoulders (the Christ Child
concealing the left shoulder) denote that she was a virgin before, during and
after the birth of her Child.
Her inner vestment is red, denoting royalty, power, humanity
which she gives to her Son, so His cloak is red.
His inner vestment is white and yellow denoting holiness and
divinity.
On his right shoulder band the sun is depicts, not with the rays shining down to the world, but back
to the one who made it, acknowledging the true light of the world.
In His left hand He holds the closed scroll reminding us that
the whole mystery is not yet revealed.
His right hand points towards Mary. It is a ‘blessing hand’ –
blessing will come through the three fingers extended to remind us of the
Trinity. (Sr. Peter)
Prayer.
Father, may the sacrifice of these friends of yours bear
fruit in your Church and draw others to follow your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen (J.M.)
k) First Anniversary
A YEAR AFTER THE A-DIEU
Monika Clare, Ireland
The 7 martyred monks of Tibhirine loved the people and the very land of Algeria Algeria
Before I went to Algeria for the first time about 15 years
ago, an Algerian friend (a devout and somewhat “fundamentalist” Muslim) advised
me “if you have any difficulties or feel frightened turn to the first man you
see in the street who doesn’t look like a criminal lunatic and say ‘I am a
stranger in your country, sent by God, please help me’”. I left out the bit
about “sent by God”, which seemed a rather bold claim, but I suspect it went
unsaid. This noble duty of chivalry towards the weak (the foreigner, the woman,
the stranger) also lies at the heart of the Gospel, but would be harder to
count on in most nominally Christian cities I fear.
A second vignette: when in Algiers
When we reached the hilltop basilica, the view was indeed
splendid. The priest on duty seemed rather surprised by this eccentric
“pilgrimage” - apparently a funeral cortege with no body. The traditional
respect of Algerians for all who honour God, and specifically for the followers
of the Messiah, had survived bitter years of colonisation, a relatively recent
war of liberation and a Soviet-inspired government.
The death of these martyred monks must, as they hoped and
prayed, lead us not to fear or hate the people of the land where they were
cruelly killed, but to recognise them as “shining with the glory of Christ,
fruit of his passion, filled with the gift of the Spirit”. After the dark days
of hoping against hope that their kidnappers’ flinty hearts would be touched,
confirmation that they had indeed died in witness to their faith reached us
during the “glory days” at the end of the Easter and we are commemorating this
anniversary in the afterglow of the glorious mysteries we celebrate at
Ascension and Pentecost. The light kindled by the monks of Atlas is inseparable
from it.
They remind us that we too have been baptised into Christ’s
death, that in Him we too can confront evil and death (within ourselves and
beyond) in the knowledge that His love has overcome them. “Peace I leave with
you; my own peace I give to you. A peace the world cannot give, that is my gift
to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid”.
Monastic life has always been viewed as essentially
baptismal; not a vocation to “add on” some “optional extra”, but rather to
plunge further into the reality of Christ’s life, death and resurrection. When
lived authentically – and above all when it culminates in the “red martyrdom”
of blood shed in Christ’s name– it reaches far beyond the limitations of the
concrete circumstances in which it is lived. The martyrs’ witness is not to
their own courage and generosity – though in human terms it is splendid to
behold, and their families, compatriots and fellow Cistercians can rightly be
proud of them. They witness to Christ in his dying and rising, when He stands
revealed as the Son and Word of God, in whom and for whom all exists, and who
died for all. Through silent prayer and intercession, they had been moulded
into the pattern of Christ’s death, growing in the boundless love which lays
down life itself for the life of the world. In their death the seven monks are
revealed as truly children of God – his own dear sons. Like their great
predecessor Ignatius of Antioch, in the fulness of life they yearned for the
death by which they were to bear witness, for they too surely heard the
murmuring of living water whispering within them “Come to the Father”.
In our hearts too, the Spirit cries out “Abba Father!” We too
follow Jesus Christ on his journey from this world “to the Father”, and we too
are invited to drink deep of the water of life. Like the first disciples, we
are led out of our familiar world up to our “mount called Olivet” to see Christ
taken up into glory, forced to let go of our narrow religious certainties and
then, perhaps baffled and frightened, powerlessly await the unimaginable
outpouring the Spirit. This self emptying, this willingness to be stripped of
our reassuring illusions is a faint reflexion of the sacrifice of the martyrs
and that of Christ Himself. May their example give us the courage to plunge
deeper into the waters of baptism – for all who have been baptised into the death
of Christ are called to follow Him through death to life. Few will be worthy to
shed their blood for Him, but please God, in death we will all discover that He
is indeed our Living way.
The book of Revelation describes the ultimate struggle, the
Blessed acclaim the maryrs, "Now have come the salvation and the power and
the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah ... our brothers have
conquered by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they
did not cling to life even in the face of death.” (Rev 12).
May we too put our trust
in the words of the One who was dead and now is alive, who loved us and gave
himself for us and for all God’s children as He proclaims: “Behold, I make all things new, for I have
conquered death. Do not fear, for I am with you to the end of time. I am the
Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
Atlas Martyrs by Donald
McGlynn, ocso 1
Chronology 2
Abduction: March 26–27, 1996 2
History of Cistercian Monks (Trappists) in Algeria 1843–1904,
1934–97 7
To Remain or Not to Remain 10
In the Hands of the Brothers from the Mountain 12
Biographical Notes 13
Fr. Christian
(Christian de Chergé), 13
Brother Luc (Paul
Dochier), 16
Fr. Christophe
(Christophe Lebreton), 18
Br. Paul (Paul
Favre-Miville), 19
Bellefontaine and
Algeria. Three volunteers: Michel, Bruno, Célestin. 21
Br. Michel (Michel Fleury), 22
Fr. Bruno (Christian Lemarchand), 23
Fr. Célestin (Célestin Ringeard), 24
Ribât and the Monks: Origins of a Spiritual Association 25
The Press 27
After the Assassinations 29
“Seismic fault-line” —Bishop Claverie 31
Let the voice of our martyrs resound 33
Christian’s Testament—Authorized Version & Variants 37
Testament of Fr. Christian – Commentary 38
Last Lament 40
Appendix 44
I. Text of Testament of Dom Christian 44
II. Message of John Paul II, Mass for the Martyrs of Atlas 46
III. Homily – All Saints,
1996. Abbot Etienne Baudry, Bellfontaine 47
IV. Message to our Christian Friends The Young Muslims’
Collective of France 50
Supplement 51
a) Atlas – Icon of our Vocation, Archbishop Henri TEISSIER 51
b) Gethsemani Buddhist-Christian Encounter 55
c) Spiritual Struggle of Monks in Algeria Abbots and
Abbesses of France 60
d) Representatives of the Muslims of France Paris, May 7th 1996 62
e) Tibhirine. (6 weeks after abduction) 63
f) After Atlas Mass,Trinity Sunday 1996 St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh 65
g) MORE ALIVE THAN EVER by Marie Romanens La Croix 29 May 1996 67
h) Video— Atlas Presentation 69
i) Personality of the Year
Award, by the Belgian Daily
Newspaper 73
j) Icon of Sancta Maria 74
k) First Anniversary A YEAR AFTER THE A-DIEU Monika Clare, Ireland 75
93 pages
30,821 words
9 Nov 07
[1]Final words of Abbot General
Bernardo Olivera, OCSO, after the burial of the seven martyrs at the monastery
of Our Lady Of Atlas. The events are uniquely chronicled in four major letters
of Dom Bernardo to the Order: “Our Brothers of Atlas I—For a Faithful Reading
of the Events” (Rome May 27, 1996; also published in L’Osservatore Romano), “Our Brothers of Atlas II—Chronicle of the
Trip to Algeria” (Rome June 11, 1996), “Our Brothers of Atlas III—Radiant
Witnesses of Hope: Your Story and Ours” (Rome September 12, 1996), “Our
Brothers of Atlas IV —Keeping their Memory Alive” (Rome May 21 1997). INTERNET:
http://www.agora.stm.it/A.Veilleux/atlas.htm
[2]Final Message of General
Chapter to Nuns and Monks of the Cistercian-Trappist Order, Rome
[3]Mgr. Henri Teissier,
Archbishop of Algiers, Homily at Mass, Tre Fontane, Rome, October 10, 1996,
from Internet, OCSO General Chapter Daily Reports, October 10, 1996. This Mass
was the culminating tribute of remembrance of the martyrs by the Order,
represented by all the members of the General Chapter; by the Church in
Algeria, represented by the Archbishop of Algiers; and by the universal Church,
represented by the Pope’s delegate Archbishop G. B. Re of the Vatican
Secretariat of State, who read the letter of John Paul II signed from his
hospital bed. L’Osservatore Romano,
October 13, 1996, published the Pope’s letter and gave full coverage to this
event and to the martyrs.
[4]Philippe Hémon, OCSO, “‘Vers un
À-Dieu en-visagé de vous’: Témoignage personnel d’un moine sur ses frères du
monastère de N.-D. de l’Atlas,” Coll 58 (1996): 230. Fr. Philippe was greatly
attached to the community of Atlas. Because of his work in helping with their
liturgy, he was due to visit Atlas to introduce new books for Easter and
Paschal time. His journey had to be postponed, and he said, “I even think that
along with Jean-Pierre and Amadeus I could well be considered as the third
escapee from this tragic happening.” Similarly, the abbot of Port-du-Salut, Dom
Rémy Declercq, was due to arrive at Atlas in the company of Br. Paul to preside
at the election of the prior; a few days before departure, his passport visa
was refused, because of a trip he had made seven years earlier to Latroun,
Israel, for a centennial celebration. Thus his life was spared.
Fr. Philippe was called upon by the Catholic
daily, La Croix, by the magazine Pèlerin, etc., to provide first-hand
information about Atlas. He was prompted into correspondence with the director
and leader writer of Le Nouvel
Observateur, who made perceptive comments and raised deep questions: “Are
Christians the only ones who can be persecuted throughout the world without
raising the slightest wave of indignation?” (Jacques Julliard, ed., Le Nouvel Observateur, May 30, 1996.
Fr. Philippe has maintained a dossier of
published material on the Atlas story and was kind enough to help the present
writer from that resource.
[5]Bernardo Olivera, “Our
Brothers of Atlas III.” The eyewitnesses wrote at the request of Dom Bernardo,
who uses their account in his third letter.
[6]Minutes of the Meeting March
25-28, 1996, Journal de Ribât, no. 24
(1996).
[7]Ribât guest, personal
account.
[8]See the recent study by
Algerian historian Claude Garda, “Les monastères cisterciens d’Algérie,” Coll
58 (1996): 201–16.
[9]See Coll 5 (1934):172; 6
(1935): 110; 7 (1936): 178, 220. See also Mireille Duteil, Les Martyrs de Tibhirine (Paris:
Éditions Brepols, 1996) 35-42. Hereafter: Les Martyrs.
[10]Coll 7 (1936): 220.
[11]Coll 7 (1936): 220, Les
Martyrs 42–56.
[12]Bernardo Olivera, “Our
Brothers of Atlas III.”
[14]The autopsy could be made on
the heads only, but the Algerian doctors estimated the time of death to
correspond to the date of May 21 given in the communiqué of the GIA. The heads
had been interred and then, a macabre detail, disinterred before being found
exposed. The bodies have not yet been found.
[15]Short personal biographies
appeared in two major French papers giving each of the seven monks a
distinctive heading. La Croix, April
13, 1996, had these descriptions: Christian, “Transparent”; Luc, “Toubib”;
Christophe, “Passionate”; Paul, “Self-possessed”; Michel, “Without guile”;
Bruno, “Gentle and just”; Célestin, “Vibrant.” Le Nouvel Observateur, May 30, 1996, had the following: Christian,
“Son of a General who preferred the poor of Algeria
[16]Recounted by Abbé Claude
Bressolette, Doyen of the Theology Faculty and Religious Science of the
Institute Catholique, Paris.
[17]Les Martyrs, 51.
[18]Abbé Claude Bressolette,
from a personal note.
[19]See Fr. Louis Wehbé, OCSO,
“Témoignage d’un moine arabe,” Coll 58 (1996): 217-23.
[20]Christian, Letter from
Tibhirine, August 4, 1984. Christian mentioned to Dom John Eudes that he had a
great grandmother who had American citizenship. He wrote out his adopted Arabic
name, “Abdulehai Christian” and explained it as meaning “Servant of the Living
One,” which is one of the ninety-nine names of God used in the Sufi prayer
liturgy. (Dom John Eudes Bamberger, OCSO, personal journal).
[21]Abbé Joseph Chone, Promoter
of Causes of Saints and Diocesan Archivist, Paris, from a personal note.
[24]Les Martyrs, 46.
[25]Luc, letter, March 19, 1995,
in Bernardo Olivera, “Our Brothers of Atlas III,” 22.
[26]Hugues Vidor, Témoignage Chrétien 18.24 (May 1987),
interview with Fr. Christophe as guestmaster at Dombes.
[27]Hugues Vidor, Témoignage Chrétien 18.24.
[28]Christophe, journal, January
30, 1996; Bernardo Olivera, “Our Brothers of Atlas III,” 22.
[30]Paul, letter, January 11,
1995.
[31]Fax letter to the writer,
January 11, 1997.
[32]Michel, letter, April 1994,
in Bernardo Olivera, “Our Brothers of Atlas III” 22.
[33]Document with Journal du Ribât, no. 24 (1996).
[35]The families kept attentive
but quiet. They refused to play into the hands of the terrorists by appearing
on television. The mother of Fr. Christophe, the youngest of the hostage monks,
sharing her son’s faith and courage, said, “My
son was aware of precisely what the risk was. He awaited the outcome with
confidence and faith. As for me, I am worried, but I wait in peace trying to be
calm.”
By April 25, when Communiqué No. 43 was made
known, the plight of the monks seemed to have fallen into oblivion.
[36]Dom Armand Veilleux, OCSO, L’Osservatore Romano, April 17. Dom
Armand first sent out information at the request of the abbot general on March
27, giving initial information about the abduction. Thereafter, by fax and
electronic mail, he kept the communities in touch with events.
[37]Le Monde, etc. See Donald McGlynn, OCSO, “Kidnapped Monks Not Forgotten,” Scottish Catholic Observer May 17, 1996.
Articles in English were derived largely from the French sources. Irwin Arieff
(Paris ), “Condemnation for Monk’s Killers”,
Herald, Glasgow London Tablet published reports from Robert Kelly, its Paris Dublin
[38]La Croix, May 5, 1996, “Communiqué from the French Abbots and Abbesses.” The
insinuation originating in the Algerian paper El Watan that it could
only be through some complicity with the rebels that the monks had been able to
stay at Tibhirine brought a quick and forceful response from the Cistercian
abbots and abbesses gathered at the time for a Regional Meeting. While
acknowledging the generally sympathetic reporting, they effectively put things
in their true perspective. A respectful silence on the point followed during
the time of anxious waiting.
[40]See R. Rollheiser, “Let me
not miss the hour of my death,” Irish
Catholic November 28, 1996 (syndicated article for similar papers); Pat
O’Leary, “Martyred Cistercian predicted his death,” Irish Catholic June 6, 1996; P. Smith, “Slain Monk’s Testament
Proclaims Love,” Salt Lake Tribune
August 31, 1996; James Wiseman, OSB, “A Testament for All Saints Day,” Texas Catholic November 1, 1996; Barbara
Mayer, OSB, “Add seven new names to the Litany of Martyrs, Intermountain Catholic January 31, 1997.
[41]Bernardo Olivera, “Our
Brothers of Atlas I”: May 27, 1996.
[42]Basil Pennington, “The
Cistercian Martyrs,” Review for Religious,
55 (1996): 601–12. Armand Veilleux see Supplement b). [See these articles and
related material on the Internet: http://www.agora.stm.it/A.Veilleux/atlas.htm
]. Étienne Baudry, OCSO, “Vocations Vendée,” Horizons 37 (Oct-Dec 1996). Julian Doherty, ‘The Wider Horizon of
the Algeria
[43]After the initial sensation
in the media, more thoughtful articles appeared in a number of journals: Donald
McGlynn, “The Martyrs of Today,” Scottish
Catholic Observer, June 7, 1996; Briefing
(bishops’ official documentation) 26.6 (June, 1996); Henri Tincq, “Le calvaire
des [sept] de Tibéhirine” (review of known facts as more information became
available), Le Monde, samedi 8 juin,
1996; Edi Duncan, “A Life for Algeria” New
City 283 (Aug/Sept, 1996); Jean Daniel, “Les Sept moines de Tibhirine”
(spiritual implication seen by a Jewish intellectual), La Nouvel Observateur no. 1647, 30 mai, 1996; Marie Romanens, “Plus
que jamais vivants” (profound reflection on Fr. Christian’s Testament), L’Actualité dans le monde no. 146, 15
juillet, 1996. The two latter are considered in Philippe Hémon,
OCSO, “Vers un À-Dieu en-visagé de vous,” Coll 58 (1996): 224–42.
In
a letter to members of L’Arche/Faith and
Light (August 31, 1996), Jean Vanier said:
“One
of these horrors was the assassination of the seven Trappist monks in Algeria Algeria
Rick
Hampson, Associated Press, ‘Monasterybecomes resting place for monks at peace
with the world’, Salt Lake City Tribune, March 30, 1997.
(http://www.sltrib.com). Also as “A Testament to the Power of Love”, Toronto
Bill
Long, ‘Brothers of the Mountains:The Atlas Martyrs’, Spirituality, Dominican Publications,
Dublin
[44]See Les Martyrs 130.
[47]Homily at Fanjeaux, Religious Life Review, Sept-Oct 1996:
281. Hereafter Fanjeaux.
[49]One hypothesis is that the
abduction was a “contract job” by a band from outside the locality. Apart from
the cutting of the telephone lines, the kidnappers seemed decided on the figure
of seven monks to meet their contract. Once they had their hands on seven
monks, they looked no further and left quickly in ignorance of the remaining
two monks and the retreatants. See Henri Tincq, Le Monde 8 Juin, 1996.
[50]Various biographical details
and exploits attributed to Zitouni may be found in the following publications:
Les Martyrs 157, L’Express, Paris, 30
Mai au 5 Juin, 1996, London Algiers Algeria
[51]Quoted in T. Radcliffe, “A
life that was given—Pierre Claverie, OP,” Religious
Life Review, Sept-Oct 1996: 287.
[52]Pierre Claverie, Lettres et message
d’Algérie (Éditions Karhala, 1996) 224. This book was in course of publication when Bishop
Claverie was assassinated.
[54]Joe Kelly, Editor, “Words to
inspire the world,” The Universe,
June 27, 1996.
[55]John Moakler, OCSO, Letter, London
[58]Louis Wehbé, OCSO, “Témoignage d’un moine arabe,” trans. Arlette Walls Chronique de Latroun, Supplément no.
222 (1996). See
longer version in Coll 58 (1996): 217-23.
[59]Bernardo Olivera, “Our
Brothers of Atlas I.”
[60]Paris
[62]Mgr. Henri Teissier,
Archbishop of Algiers, had the Polish version when he met the monks and nuns of
the Order at Tre Fontane on October 12, 1996. A linguist himself, he was
interested in collecting the different language translations.
[64]In his homily on November 1,
1996 Dom Étienne Baudry, OCSO, of Bellefontaine says: “Everything is said
already in this text, which, it seems to me, dates from the initial shock on December
1 and was never corrected or touched up but was begun all over again on a
deeper level on January 1. [The second stage was the result] of a sharp inner
debate that led to the rediscovery or at least the revelation of a deep
vocation ending in the transfiguration of his already-given forgiveness.” See
Appendix III.
[65]Cf. Hallel 21 (1996): Editorial.
[66]General Chapter of the
Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance, Poyo , Spain
[67]John Paul II, Vita Consecrata 78 (March 1996).
[68]Cardinal Francis Arinze is
president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. In his
panegyric he praised Cardinal Duval and the seven Trappist monks as “devoted
and faithful disciples of Jesus Christ” for their work in Catholic-Muslim
dialogue.
[69]Bernardo Olivera, “Our
Brothers of Atlas II.”
[70]The group of nine who went
to the monastery under heavy military security included, in addition to the
abbot general and Fr. Armand, Fr. Jean-Pierre, Fr. Amadeus, and three memebers
of Fr. Christophe’s family.
[71]Bernardo Olivera, “Our
Brothers of Atlas II.”
[72]Cf. Hallel 21 (1966): 150–1; copyright: Order of the Cistercians of the
Strict Observance.
[74] Bruno CHENU, Sept vies pour Dieu et l’Algérie, textes
recueillis et présentés par B. CHENU. Centurion, 1996, p. 23 -
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Icon in honour to the Seven Atlas Monks
by Sr. Peter ocso
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bonjour
ReplyDeletej'ai croisé Frère Christophe en 1987 quant je pigeais pour Témoignage Chrétien , une rencontre lumineuse. Frère Christophe m' avait écris au moment de son départ pour l'Atlas
je suis intéressé par le livre qui permet de reconstituer ces parcours et ces témoignages de vie et d'engagements, je n'ai jamais revu Frère Christophe. le film m a permis de comprendre de sens de sa vie au Monastère
j'ai dessiné une toile en souvenir de lui et souhaiterait l'envoyer à sa famille
suis aussi intéressé pour votre livre et soutenir sa diffusion
bien cordialement
Hugues Vidor
hugues.vidor@free.fr