Sister Paul-Hélène
Saint-Raymond - Little
Sister of Assumption
She
was born in Paris on the 24th January 1927.
While she was an engineer, in 1952 she entered the Little Sisters of the
Assumption where she pronounced her perpetual vows in 1960.
From 1954 to 1957 her apostolate was with working families at Creil; then
she did some studies as a nurse, a profession that led her to the working
class sections of Paris.
During these years her missionary sense and availability deepened and she
wrote on the vigil of her perpetual vows,
. “I also see myself as a missionary, in the service of God and of the
Church, here and elsewhere, in a small corner of Paris or in South America…
but I have the deep desire to be totally available… wherever God would
want me to be.”
In 1963, she was sent to Algiers. She stayed there until 1974 and then spent
one year at Tunis, nine years at Casablanca and then returned to Algiers in
1984. During her first stay in Algiers, she was the mainspring at the medicalsocial
Centre of the Little Sisters of the Assumption that offered the poor people
of the neighbourhood a home service: nursing care, family work and a private
dispensary.
At Casablanca, she was responsible for a service for premature babies. She
was also particularly attentive to those who, for political reasons, lived
secretly. When she returned to Algeria in 1984, she lived in community at
Ksar el Boukhari, where she was a school nurse.
It was 1988 that she rejoined the community of Belcourt in Algiers and worked
in the library of the Casbah with Brother Henri Vergès. It was there
that she was murdered, at the same time as Brother Henri Vergès, on
the 8th May 1994.
In the last period that she lived in Algeria, Paul-Hélène said
she
was very challenged by the violence and she added:
. “We need to commence to fight against our own violence.”
When Father Teissier warned the community as to the risks, she responded:
. “Father, in any way our lives are already given.”
One sister gave this testimony: “Her life was given, delivered to the
little ones and to the poor whom she passionately loved, welcomed and from
whom she would say she received so much. Her way of ‘announcing Jesus
Christ’ in the Moslem society was for her the respect for the beliefs
of others,
a deeply personal aspect of her Christian faith, demanded in life by the Gospel.”
Sister Esther
Paniagua Alonso -
Augustinian Missionary Sister
She
was born at Izagre (León, Spain), on the 7th June 1949, daughter of
Dolores Alonso and of Nicasio Paniagua.
Worried and searching for something, she discovered the call to the religious
life. At eighteen years of age, she entered the Novitiate of the Congregation
of the Augustinian Missionary Sisters. In August 1970 she made her final vows.
She studied as a nurse and then was sent to Algeria. The contact with the
Arab world enticed her and refined her sensitivity towards the Arab culture
and
Muslim religion and especially towards the people to whom she gave herself
without reserve.
She worked in hospitals where she gave herself totally to the sick, especially
to the handicapped children for whom she did not keep to a timetable. They
used to call her “their angel”.
Someone asked her if she was afraid of the situation in the country. She
answered, .“No one can take our life because we have already given it…
Nothing will happen to us since we are in the hands of God… and if something
does happen, we are still in his hands.”
In the discernment meeting about staying or leaving, she said to her sisters:
.“At this time, for me, the
perfect model is Jesus: he suffered, he had to overcome difficulties and succeeded
in the failure of the cross, from where gushed the source of life.”
Her preferred book was the Bible which enlightened her life filled with light
and shade. She also read the Koran to better understand the faith of the people
and she loved to read the mystics and the Sufis of the
Moslem world.
Sister Caridad
Álvarez Martín - Augustinian
Missionary Sister
She
was born at Santa Cruz de la Salceda (Burgos), Spain, on the 9th May 1933,
in the home of Sotera Martín and Constantino Álvarez.
In 1955, she entered the Congregation of the Augustinian Missionary Sisters.
She was sent to Algeria and gave herself fully to her mission. She made final
vows on the 3rd May 1960.
Her delicate health made her return to Spain. Once she had
recovered, she returned to Algeria and stayed there more than thirty years.
She mostly looked after elderly people andthe poor.
She lived through the violence crisis that erupted in the 1990s. Enticed by
her mission, she never doubted for an instant about staying by the sides of
the people who had accepted her and whom
she loved profoundly. .“I am open to that which God and my superiors
want of me, Mary remained open to the will of God, which probably cost her.
In the present situation, I want to stay in this attitude before God.”
Every day she recited the rosary and this love of the Virgin Mary identified
her as someone consecrated.
On the 23d of October 1994, Caridad and Esther were killed on the way to
the Sunday Mass.
|
Biographies of 4
Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers)
|
Jean Chevillard
He
was born in Angers (France) on the 27th August 1925.
Once his studies were finished,
he entered the White Fathers. It
was the war. At sixteen years of age, he succeeded in reaching North Africa.
There he took his missionary oath on the 29th June 1949 and was ordained a
priest on the 1st July 1950 at Carthage.
Appointed to Algeria, he stayed
there nearly all his life:
responsible for centres of formation, regional superior, regional econome.
He was murdered on his feast day on the 27th December 1994 at Tizi-Ouzou.
He was in his office, receiving people, recording information and doing the
mail. Towards midday, he was snatched by four armed men.
Father Pierre Georgin, Superior
Provincial, said,
. “This serious man of duty, I found in him a degree that touched on
heroism.”
In the Kabylies mountains,
while violence was on the increase in all of Algeria, Jean knew he was exposed:
. “I know that I can die murdered. Our vocation is to witness to the
Christian faith on Moslem land. For the rest, ‘Inch Allah!’”
One of his sisters asked him
in September 1994: “Why are you returning there?” He answered:
. “I am returning there to give witness. My home is there, near my Berber
friends. If I die, I want to be buried there.”
Alain Dieulangard
He
was born on the 21st May 1919 at St-Brieuc (France).
He followed his studies in
law which he finished in 1943. This same year he was accepted by the White
Fathers.
He made his oath at Thibar
on the 29th June 1949 and was ordained a priest on the 1st February 1950.
Appointed to Algeria, he spent
all his missionary life there, especially in Kabylie, working in administration
and teaching.
He was a man of God, seeking
the absolute. .“When Father Alain started to speak to me of God, I recall
that he would close his eyes, remembers Amar, and softly he let loose his
words in so low a
tone that I would have to listen hard: we must love God our Father, our refuge
and our life,
by loving also our brothers in the Lord Jesus Christ; that’s what he
would repeat over and over again.”
Before his death he wrote:
.“As the apostles on the lake, we have only to cry towards the Lord to
wake him… The future is in the hands of God.”
He was murdered in the mission
courtyard on the 27th December 1994.
Charles Deckers
He
was born at Anvers (Belgium) on the 26th December 1924. At the end of his
studies he joined the White Fathers. He took his oath on the 21st July 1949
and was ordained a priest on the 8th April 1950.
He studied Arabic in Tunis. In 1955 at Tizi-Ouzou he learnt Berber and became
responsible for a youth hostel. For three years he directed the El Kalima
Centre in Brussels, a centre of documentation and of dialogue between Christians
and Moslem immigrants.
In 1982, he went to Yemen, but in 1987 he returned to Algeria, as parish
priest of Our Lady of Africa. Very loved by the Kabyles, during the celebrations
in January 2005, his name often came up in testimonies:
.“I knew Father Deckers,” recalled one witness, “I keep in
my memory the image of this sower of hope for the most hopeless… with
this serenity that only emanates from saints…”
He was aware of the dangers he was courting:
.“I know that my activities are dangerous for my life. Here is my vocation,
I remain… Our Lady of Africa remains at the mercy of an insane act. In
the diocese, we think that the maintenance of the presence of the Church is
important, as much for the Church itself as for the country.”
On the 27th December 1994, he set on his way to celebrate with his friend
Jean Chevillard. A few
minutes after his arrival, he was killed in the mission courtyard.
Christian Chessel
He
was born in Digne (France) on the 27th October 1958.
After having obtained his engineering diploma in 1981, he worked as a volunteer
in Ivory Coast for two years and in 1985 he entered the White Fathers. It
was in Rome, by a strange coincidence, that Christian took his missionary
oath on the 26th November 1991, his right hand placed on the pages of a Gospel
of Saint Luke in the Arabic language, found on the remains of Father Richard,
murdered in the Sahara in 1881. He was ordained a priest on the 28th June
1992. On his return to
Tizi-Ouzou, he prepared the library project for the
students.
A young Algerian woman wrote after his death:
.“To the parents of our young Father Christian… I would say: know
that during his last days, Christian was very happy… He had started the
project, so dear to his heart, of building a library for all the young people
of Tizi-Ouzou.” At the start of November 1994, Christian went to the
monastery of Tibhirine to be with the group Ribât-es-Salam (Link of
peace). He wrote:
. “I feel the necessity of balancing my life by a more spiritual dimension
and something more simple
and lived.”
A hail of machine gun bullets ended his life on the 27th December 1994 in
the Tizi-Ouzou
courtyard.
Jeanne Littlejohn
Sister Angèle-Marie - Sister
of Our Lady of The Apostles
She was born in Tunis on the 22nd November 1933. In 1957,
Jeanne entered the Postulancy of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Apostles and
received the name
of Angèle-Marie. She pronounced her first vows on the 8th September
1959 and she left for Algeria to Bouzarea where the Sisters ran an orphanage
and boarding school for young girls.
She stayed there from 1959 to 1964, in charge of the little
ones and as an embroidery teacher. In 1964,
when the Algiers School of Art opened in Belcourt, she went there as an embroidery
teacher.
She stayed there until her death.
Patient, close and simple with the girls, she wanted to inculcate
in them the love of art, of work well done; she spoke to them in their own
language. Sister Angèle-Marie was profoundly attached to Algeria, to
its inhabitants, to her mission, sharing with this people their joys and their
sufferings.
When Father Bonamour, the parish priest, recalled the danger
and invited the sisters to be ready,
they responded: .“We are ready.”
When leaving from Mass during the afternoon of Sunday the 3rd
September 1995, a sister shared her fear about the violence with her. Angèle-Marie
answered her:
.“We must not be afraid. We must only live the present moment well…
the rest does not belong to us.”
Her mission was fulfilled in this peace and this simplicity.
About ten minutes later, on their way to the house, Sister Angèle Marie
was killed with Sister Bibiane, her companion.
Denise Leclercq
Sister Bibiane - Sister
of Our Lady of The Apostles
Denise Leclercq was born on the 8th January 1930 at Gazerau,
France.
She entered the Sisters of Our Lady of the Apostles on the 4th March 1959.
After her first vows on the 8th March 1961, she was sent to Algeria to the
maternity ward of Constantine.
A good collaborator, attentive to the needs of others, Sister
Bibiane flourished in the care of the newly born and their mothers. In 1964
she was in Algiers, in charge of a sewing and embroidery centre for
young people without studies.
The sisters received the young girls from underprivileged neighbourhoods
where they visited the families. This allowed Sister Bibiane to discover the
great material and moral misery of Algerian women. She witnessed to Jesus
Christ in the “silence of words” and the actions of her life.
In 1994, she had to make a decision: stay or leave? Sister Bibiane’s
response was clear:
.“It is the people themselves who have asked for the Sisters. Actually
they have asked that we stay. I am very saddened, I feel powerless before
so much suffering, but I know, God loves these people and I have great confidence
in Our Lady of Africa. Jesus said, ‘the Father will give you all that
you ask for in
my name’…
His light helps me to discover marvels that are hidden, surprising
solidarities, generosities, superhuman
courage; the Spirit is in their heart who works. The Word of God helps me
to stay attentive to be a ray of hope: I choose to stay”.
With this interior freedom, when leaving mass on the 3rd September
1995, only about one hundred metres from the house, Sister Bibiane was killed
with Sister Angèle-Marie.
Sister
Odette Prévost - Little
Sister of the Sacred Heart
She
was born on the 17th July 1932 in Champagne, France.
In 1950, she headed towards teaching and was a teacher for three years. In
1953, at twenty one years of age she entered the Little Sisters of the Sacred
Heart of Charles de Foucauld.
In 1959, she made her perpetual profession.
From 1958, she left on mission to Kbab in Morocco, then to Argenteuil
(France) among the Maghrebines and in 1968 to Algiers. She tried to enter
into the great spiritual adventure of understanding others at the interior
of their own religious tradition. She read the Koran and prayed in
groups where Christians and Moslems prayed together.
She knew how to live very close to the people of her poor neighbourhood
in respect, friendship,
in the little things of life, in services asked and services given. Following
Jesus of Nazareth, she let the love of God be seen in the simple encounters
of life.
She knew how to analyse political situations and was aware of
danger;
. “It’s a privileged time to live fidelity to Jesus Christ and to
the Gospel more truly.”
She died in Algiers from the bullets of a terrorist while she
was going to Mass on the 10th November 1995.
No one could take her life for she had already profoundly and consciously
given it.
The Seven Brothers
of Tibhirine - Trappists
During
the night of the 26th March 1996, seven monks out of nine, from the monastery
of Tibhirine, were taken hostage in circumstances that have never been clear.
Probably the seven monks were murdered during the night of the 21st May 1996.
They were decapitated and only their heads were buried on the 4th June in
the monastery cemetery, after a solemn funeral in the cathedral of Algiers.
The precise circumstances of the fifty-six days of detention and their death
remain a mystery.
Their choice to stay in Algeria, despite a growing climate of
terror, had matured in common after an intimidating visit by an armed group
during Christmas night 1993. This free decision expressed their wish to stay
together, sharing with their neighbours the dangers of the violence that affected
the most destitute. They wanted to be in solidarity with the small ecclesial
community, given to God and to Algeria and offered like Christ for the salvationof
the people.
They knew they were heading towards death and they accepted
this unreservedly. The offering of their lives and the forgiveness of the
aggressors are found in a marvellous way in the testament of the prior, in
the diary of the master of novices and in the letters of other brothers to
their families.
These seven brothers, very different from each other, were united in love
for the Algerian people, respect for Islam and the desire for poverty. This
second vocation, linked to the great Christian and
Cistercian vocation, led them to witness together to the Lord’s Paschal
Mystery through the offering of their lives.
D. CHRISTIAN
DE CHERGÉ
Prior
of the monastery, he was the animator of a spiritual path that led the
community to accept clearly the possibility of martyrdom.
He was born on the 19th January 1937 at Colmar (Haut-Rhin),
France.
He was ordained a priest on the 21st March 1964 and he entered the Trappist
monastery of Aiguebelle on the 20th August 1969. In January 1971 he arrived
at Tibhirine where he finished his novitiate and made his simple profession.
From 1971 to 1973 he studied Arabic and Islam in Rome. He returned
to Algeria and made his solemn vows on the 1st October 1976.
On the 31st March 1984, he was elected prior.
.“It is certain that God loves the Algerians and without doubt has chosen
to show them this by giving them our lives… For each one it is a moment
of truth and heavy responsibility in these times when those we love feel so
little loved. Each one learns to integrate little by little death in this
gift and with death all the other conditions of this ministry of living together
which is a demand of total gratuity”.
(Circular letter – 25.4.1995)
Br. LUC
DOCHIER
Brother
Luc Dochier, gruff but profoundly human, became legendary in the region thanks
to his services to the sick.
Born on the 31st January 1914 at Bourg-de-Péage (Drôme),
after his studies in
medicine, he did military service in Morocco as a medical lieutenant. He entered
the Trappist monastery of Aiguebelle on the 7th December 1941 and took the
habit of a brother.
From 1943 to 1945 he was a voluntary prisoner in Germany having
taken the place of a father of a family. In 1946, he left for Tibhirine where
on the 15th August 1949, he pronounced his perpetual
vows as a brother. In 1959 he was taken hostage with another brother by the
ALN, but they were released after two weeks.
When the monks were kidnapped, he was 82 years old and with fifty years of
presence in Algeria.
.“What can happen to us?
To go towards the Lord and to be immersed in his tenderness. God is all merciful
and the great forgiver”.
(Letter of 5.1.1995).
...“There is no true love of God without consenting unreservedly
to death… Death is God”.
(Letter of 28.5.1995)
Fr. CHRISTOPHE
LEBRETON
He
was the youngest. He belonged to the generation of the student revolts of
1968.
He grew rapidly in faith to the gift of his life according to
the profound testimony of his
diary and of his poetry.
He was born on the 11th October 1950 at Blois (Loir-et- Cher).
At twelve years of age, he entered the minor seminary but he left at the end
of high school. He enrolled in the faculty of law and did his civil service
in Algeria.
On the 1st November 1974, he entered the Trappist monastery
of Tamié and while still a novice
he left for Tibhirine. In 1977 he preferred to return to Tamié where
he made his solemn profession on the 1st November 1980. On the 8th October
he returned to Our Lady of Atlas. He was ordained a priest on the 1st January
1990.
Testament:
. “My body is for the earth; but please, no protection between it and
me. My heart is for life, but please no way between it and me. My hands for
work are crossed, very simply. May my face be absolutely bare so as not to
prevent the kiss. And the look, let it see it”.
Br. MICHEL
FLEURY
He
was an untiring worker, a simple and silent man, desirous of participating
fully in the Paschal Mystery of Christ.
He was born on the 21st May 1944 at Sainte- Anne-sur-Brivet
and until the age of seventeen he worked on the land. For nine years he studied
at the seminary. Then he
spent ten years at Prado, working as a factory worker in Lyon, Paris and Marseille.
He entered the Trappist monastery at Bellefontaine in November
1980. He left for Tibhirine in 1984. He made profession on the 28th August
1986.
.“Spirit Holy Creator, deign to bind me as soon as possible
– not my will but yours be done – to the Paschal Mystery of Jesus
Christ, our Lord, with the means that you would want, sure that You, Lord
will live it in me…”
(Act of offering – 30.5.1993).
Fr. BRUNO
LEMARCHAND
Superior
of the annex house at Fès, in Morocco, he was a measured and deeply
humble man.
He was born on the 1st March 1930 at Saint- Maixent and entered
the major seminary in Poitiers after his secondary school studies. From 1951
to 1953, he did his military service in Algeria.
He was ordained a priest on the 2nd April 1956. From 1956 to
1980 he taught at the Saint Charles de
Thouars College and at the age of fifty-one, he entered the Trappist monastery
of Bellefontaine. He left for Tibhirine in 1984.
On the 21st March 1990 he made his solemn profession at Tibhirine.
In 1991 he became responsible for the annexed house of Fès.
At the time when he was taken hostage, he was at Tibhirine for a few days
for the election of the prior.
“You lead me, Lord, in silence and in prayer, in work and
in joyous service of my brothers, in the example of your hidden life at Nazareth.
(Notes – 1981)
I am always happy in my monastic life and to live in the land
of Islam. Quite simply: Here is Nazareth with Jesus, Mary and Joseph…
”
(Letter of December 1995)
Fr. CELESTIN
RINGEARD
Very
skilful in manual labour; he was helpful and friend to all.
He was born on the 17th April 1939 at Vinzier (Haute-Savoie).
He worked with his father as a blacksmith, then he followed a professional
training and became a very expert plumber. After the death of his mother,
in 1984, he entered Our Lady
of Tamié.
From there he left for Tibhirine in 1989. He made his perpetual
profession on the 20th August 1991.
. “What will remain in a few months of the Church of Algeria,
of its visibility, of its structures, the people who compose it? With all
probability little, very little. And yet I believe that the Good News is sown,
the grain is germinating (…) The Spirit is at work, he works in the depths
of the heart of people. Let’s be available so that he can act in us through
prayer and the loving presence of all our brothers”.
(Letter of 11.1.1995)
Br. PAUL
FAVRE-MIVILLE
Très
habile dans les travaux manuels, il était serviable et ami de tous.
Il naît le 17 avril 1939 à Vinzier (Haute-Savoie).
Il travaille avec son père comme forgeron, puis il suit une formation
professionnelle et devient un plombier très expert. Après la
mort de sa mère, en 1984, il entre à N.D. de Tamié. De
là il part pour Tibhirine en 1989. Il fait profession perpétuelle
le 20 août 1991.
« Qu’est-ce qu’il restera dans quelques mois
de l’Eglise d’Algérie, de sa visibilité, de ses structures,
des personnes qui la composent ? Avec toute probabilité peu, très
peu. Et cependant je crois que la Bonne
Nouvelle est semée, la graine germe (…) L’Esprit est à
l’oeuvre, il travaille en profondeur dans le coeur des hommes. Soyons
disponibles pour qu’il puisse agir en nous à travers la prière
et la présence aimante de tous nos frères. » (Lettre du
11.1.1995)
Bishop Pierre Claverie
(1938-1996)
Bishop of Oran - Dominican
The
life and death of Pierre Claverie, 1938-1996, Dominican and bishop of
Oran, offers a response to the signs of our times, characterised by tensions
that are often violent between people who live different faiths and creeds.
The incessant search for God and the call to all believers that Claverie made,
to live together in peace and in reciprocal respect, find an expression in
a vowed
existence totally at the announcement of his own faith:
a long fidelity, where his commitment in favour of dialogue was the centre
and his
life the price.
On the 1st August 1996, Pierre Claverie, bishop of Oran, was
murdered with Mohamed, the young Algerian who was his driver.
Journey of a life given.
Pierre Claverie was born in Algiers on the 8th May 1938. In 1957, he studied
mathematics physics and chemistry at the University of Grenoble. In 1958,
he directed his life towards the Dominicans. He would always keep alive the
glowing charism of the Word for which he was particularly gifted. From 1959
to 1967 he studied theology at Saulchoir.
He returned to Algeria in 1967:
.“After independence, I asked to return to Algeria to rediscover the
world where I was born… It’s there that my true personal adventure
began.” He quickly started studying Arabic.
In 1970, the bishop of Constantine-Hippone, Bishop Jean Scotto,
took him as personal collaborator. But in 1973, he was asked to look after
a language and pastoral centre of the Glycines, in Algiers.
On the 5th June 1981, he was appointed bishop of Oran. He participated
in social and political debate and placed himself on the lines of fracture
there where the future of the country was being formed; but
there also his life was in danger.
As bishop and as a Dominican, he refused to be silent and on
the contrary, he pushed the word with lucidity towards the audacity of the
truth. His life would be the price he would pay.
.“It is now that we must take our part of the suffering and of the hope
of Algeria, with love, respect patience and lucidity.”
.“I have been often asked…
You return home? But where is our home? We are here for the crucified Messiah:
for no other reason and for no other person!… It is a question of love.”
.“The martyrdom is the greatest testimony of love. It is not a matter
of running towards death, nor seeking suffering for suffering’s sake…
but it is in shedding your own blood that you come close to God.”
.“Holiness is above all a great passion. There is a madness in holiness,
the madness of love, the same
madness of the cross, which mocks the wisdom of mankind.”
A Moslem friend wrote:
.“There are men who, having perceived in advance the meaning of history…
emerge from destiny as mortals by actions of a great range of humanity or
of truth…
These men, moved often by a demanding moral reflection, do not hesitate to
take their part of responsibility through love of the truth… Bishop Claverie
was one of these exceptional men, in search of creating bridges between men
of any faith or origin, struggling so that the right for difference can be
accepted and lived without restriction, in a sincere dialogue that is without
reserve…”
«No
matter that the universal believer
be Brahman, Jew, Christian or Moslem,
his religion is love:
love towards God
and love towards his creatures…
Each child
born in a Jewish,
Chinese or
Moslem house
can know,
in God,
his true master;
this aptitude is innate».
(Koran XXX - 30)
God
is one,
Life is one,
Humanity is one,
And love is one.
(Koran II – 133; 140)
The martyr
Every day,
at Mass, we celebrate the passion, the death
and the resurrection of Jesus, our Lord, the central event
of our faith. From this death comes salvation, our life as
sons and daughters of God.We have a martyr as Saviour
and Lord.
Jesus thus opens a way for his disciples:“If the grain of
wheat that falls to the ground does not die, it remains
alone… Whoever loses his life, will find it again in eternal
life!”The call to martyrdom is an integral part of our
faith.That certain Christians go as far as shedding their
blood signifies the good health of the people of God.
Jesus renews his martyrdom, “the grain dies and bears
much fruit”, as Tertullien said, one of the great theologians
of the Church at Maghreb:“the blood of the martyrs
is the seed of Christians!”
Throughout its already long history, the Church has
known many martyrs. In latter times, many are disciples
who have given witness by the shedding of their blood.
John Paul II recalled this on the 7th May 2000, at the
Colosseum, in commemorating the “New Martyrs” of the
XXth century:“In the great Algerian torment, which took
thousands of lives, the Church of Algeria stands without
appearances or power. It is present to a prize that has
cost it nineteen martyrs in a few years: a Marist Brother,
six religious sisters at Algiers, four White Fathers at Tizi-
Ouzou, the seven Trappists monks of Atlas and Pierre
Claverie, the bishop of Oran.”
Our nineteen martyrs present a very varied gamut of
humanity: we find the soft and the strong, the mystics
and the poets, the active and the contemplatives, those
of humble daily service and the pioneers in mission,
those of the powerful word and those of contemplative
silence. All witness to love, service and dialogue. Their
sacrifice is a blessing of peace for the small Church of
Algeria and for all the Algerian people.
Booklet written by Giovanni Bigotto Marist
This
booklet presents a group of nineteen martyrs of the Church of Algeria. All
were passionate about their Church, of which they were zealous servants, and
passionate also about Algeria and its people where they had weaved their friendships.
The
Church of Algeria does not forget that it is the inheritor of Saint Augustine,
Saint Cyprian and Tertullien. These are all men of light that
A
man who always tended towards more clarity and simplicity.