Inventing a new way of being Christian in a Muslim country: the case of the 19 martyrs of the Church of Algeria (1994-1996)

Abstract

Nineteen members of the Catholic Church in Algeria were murdered in a two-year period, from 1994 to 1996. The majority of them were French religious men and women who had spent their entire lives serving the population of this Muslim country. Their desire was to build bridges in a context of heavy religious polarisation. Fifteen years after their tragic deaths, the echo of their lives of service is spreading through various media around the world: film, DVDs, books published in various languages. By opening a cause of beatification of these 19 religious men and women, the Catholic Church purports to show that this kind of testimony goes beyond the boundaries of the Church, reaching even people who seem to be far from religious concerns. The success of the Testament of Cistercian Fr. Christian de Chergé, the subject of the film of Xavier Beauvois, Of Gods and men, was an unexpected event.