Rimini – At the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples, one of the most profound and moving events of this year took place: “Lives Given. The Living Legacy of the Martyrs of Algeria.” At noon, before a large audience, the memory of the 19 religious men and women killed in Algeria during the so-called “black decade” did not appear as a closed chapter of history but as a living inheritance that continues to challenge the conscience of the Church and the world today.
An exhibition as memory and invitation
At the heart of the gathering was the exhibition “Called Twice,” dedicated to the 19 martyrs beatified in Oran on December 8, 2018. Its title evokes their double fidelity: to Christ in their religious vocation and to the Algerian people, whom they refused to abandon despite threats. The exhibition — with portraits, life stories, personal objects, and the spiritual testament of Christian de Chergé, prior of Tibhirine — leads visitors into the concreteness of lives given to the end. The inscription in Arabic “God is love” on a liturgical vestment of Bishop Pierre Claverie stands as the synthesis of their message. Silere non possum will revisit this exhibition in the coming days.
Sister Lourdes’ testimony
The first to speak after the introduction was Sister Lourdes Miguélez Matilla, an Augustinian missionary who survived an attack in which two of her sisters were killed. Her words gave voice to a life lived side by side with the Algerian people, marked by friendship, solidarity, and unwavering faith. “I wanted my colleagues and the sick to feel that I would not abandon them. I wanted to walk with them, support them, share their fears. It was my way of saying: your suffering is also mine,” she said. Recalling the martyrdom of Sisters Esther and Caridad, she added: “In that moment I could only say: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.Yes, it was painful, but we were ready for it.”
© Meeting RiminiThe voice of a successor: Cardinal Vesco
The central address was delivered by Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, Dominican Archbishop of Algiers, who carries the legacy of the martyrs not only spiritually but personally: he once served as Bishop of Oran, the diocese of Bishop Claverie, killed alongside his Muslim friend Mohamed Bouchikhi.
Asked what the 19 martyrs say to today’s world, Vesco offered three insights: “the strength of a united Church, the strength of fraternity, and the subversive power of fragility.”
A united Church. “It was decided to present the cause of beatification of all 19 together — all or none. Not because of their individual fame or charisma, but because their witness was shared: to remain with the people, faithful, even at the risk of death.”
The strength of fraternity. He recalled the beatification in Oran, celebrated at the sanctuary of Santa Cruz with the support of Muslim authorities. “That day,” he said, “on the faces of everyone — Christians and Muslims alike — there was a smile. It was the sign that fraternity is possible, even in the midst of violence. That day we saw that losing power does not mean losing meaning.”
The power of fragility. “Ours is a small, disarmed Church. But precisely this fragility is its strength. It disarms. It witnesses to a presence that is poor and freely given, that threatens no one — and precisely for this reason can speak to all.”
Vesco concluded by reading Christian de Chergé’s prayer after meeting a GIA leader on Christmas 1994: “I cannot ask God: kill him. But I can ask: disarm him. And I realized I could say this only if I first prayed: disarm me. Disarm us. This is my daily prayer.” A call, the cardinal stressed, that remains urgent in a world still caught in the arms race.
An echo from the Muslim world: the witness of Nagià Kebour
Professor Nagià Kebour, an Algerian Muslim and lecturer at PISAI, offered a precious perspective: that of one who lived through the terrorism of the 1990s.
“Terrorism did not target only foreigners or Christians: it struck the whole Algerian people. It betrayed Islam itself, which calls God peace, mercy, love,” she said. Quoting the Qur’an — “Whoever kills an innocent is as if he killed all humanity”— Kebour emphasized that the Tibhirine martyrs embody for her the witness of true friendship: “A friendship that goes beyond hatred, that builds bridges. I too, welcomed in Italy by the Little Sisters of Jesus, experienced this gratuitous love. For me, the martyrs are proof that fraternity is possible.”
Father Georgeon: gratuity and the common good
The final contribution came from Abbot Thomas Georgeon, Trappist and postulator of the martyrs’ cause. He brought the reflection to the essence of their legacy: “The martyrs did not try to convert anyone: they bore witness. And they call us to our own conversion. They show us that dialogue is born of humility and of delight in the other.”
Georgeon recalled a symbolic episode: at Bishop Claverie’s funeral, a Muslim woman stood up to say: “He was my bishop.” Not because she had changed faith, but because he had helped her rediscover the roots of her Islamic faith. “This,” Georgeon explained, “is what the martyrs did: they did not ask others to convert, but sparked within them an inner conversion, a return to meaning and to faith.”
Their lesson, he added, is also social and political: “In a world that has lost meaning and is reduced to the logic of possession, the martyrs point to the path of the common good. Pope Francis insisted that the beatification be celebrated in Algeria, sensing its significance for interreligious dialogue. From that gesture grew a path that led to Fratelli tutti. The 19 are an icon of this universal fraternity: staying close to the people, not seeking their own benefit but the good of all.”
He closed with a reminder of gratuity: “People often ask me: what did this martyrdom achieve? It achieved nothing. They did no calculations. They gave their lives freely. In a world that measures everything in terms of profit, their gratuity remains both a provocation and a promise.”
A legacy that still challenges us
The voices heard today in Rimini offered not a consoling memory but a question. The legacy of the Algerian martyrs is not a rhetoric of death, but the strength of friendship, fidelity, and fraternity lived to the extreme. That is why, still today, the monastery of Tibhirine is visited daily by hundreds of Muslims on silent pilgrimage. Those lives were not given in vain. They revealed that Christianity is not a theory but a lived experience — “a gentle fist,” as one speaker said — that continues to stir hearts and generate hope.
M.P.
Silere non possum