The Monks of Tibhirine By Fr Jim O’Connell, mhm
The 7 monks and the other Algerian martyrs - including the Bishop
The award-winning French film “Of Gods and Men” (2010) movingly portrays the true story of seven Trappist monks who were murdered in Algeria. The monks of Tibhirine in the Abbey of Our Lady at the foot of the Atlas Mountains knew they were likely to be killed if they remained in the monastery. It was during the Algerian Civil War, and they had been threatened by terrorists, but they decided to stay despite the danger. They had come to Algeria not to convert Muslims but to live among them and be friends with them. They had a simple life and did their best to serve the poor in the community around the monastery. Since 1938, when the monastery was founded, they and their Muslim neighbours had lived peacefully together. The monks called the Algerian army “our brothers of the 26
The monastery cemetery in Tibherine
plain” and the rebels “our brothers of the mountains” in hopes that one day there would be peace. But this was not to be and there was pressure on the monks to side with the Islamist guerrillas or the Algerian government. They managed not to back either side but knew they were in grave danger.
that the monks had been beheaded after the kidnapping. Others claimed the monks were killed by an Algerian air force airstrike and beheaded afterwards. Nobody knows exactly what happened. Their heads were recovered on the 30th of May and buried at the monastery. Their bodies have never been found. The two monks who were not kidnapped, Fr Jean-Pierre and Fr Amédée, escaped because they were at the front of the monastery when the guerrillas arrived. “There was no noise. There was nothing remarkable,” Jean Pierre said about that night of the kidnapping. He was the night porter at the main door of the Monastery, and would have been the first to encounter the kidnappers if they came in that way, but they entered through the basement. He was not aware of anything happening. It was hours later that he and Amédée found out what had unfolded after midnight. Some months after the monks were abducted, Bishop Pierre Claverie of the Diocese of Oran was killed along with
his driver. Seven people were convicted of these killings and sentenced to death. The Catholic Church of Algeria succeeded in having their death sentences commuted.
Their memory lives on In January 2018, Pope Francis declared the Bishop a martyr, together with the seven Trappist monks, and 11 other religious men and women from France, Spain, Tunisia and Belgium. They were beatified on December 8, 2018. Because of the film, “Of Gods and Men”, the monks’ story has become well-known. The Notre Dame de L’Atlas Monastery is now in Midelt, Morocco. In this city, in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains, Fr Jean Pierre and Fr Amédée re-established a community after the killing of their fellow monks. A small number of monks from other countries joined them. There are lots of memories and reminders of the past in the new monastery. A painting in the abbey chapel depicts the slain monks from Tibhirine in prayer. A memorial to them shows their portraits. The
“No Noise, nothing remarkable” On the night of March 27, 1996, soon after midnight, around twenty men attacked the monastery and kidnapped seven monks. Two other monks escaped being kidnapped, but were unable to contact police until the next morning because the phone lines had been cut. Two months later, a fundamentalist Islamic group claimed Spring 2022
The monks as depicted in the film 'Of Gods and Men' Spring 2022
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