Seven slain French monks among 19 to be beatified in Algeria

ORAN, Algeria: The Catholic Church will on Saturday beatify in Algeria seven French monks and 12 other clergy killed during the country’s civil war, the first ceremony of its kind in a Muslim nation.

The Trappist monks were abducted from the Priory of Our Lady of Atlas in Tibhirine, about 80 kilometres southwest of Algiers, by Islamist gunmen in March 1996.

Their severed heads were discovered two months later and their deaths were announced by the insurgent Armed Islamic Group of Algeria (GIA).

The tragedy inspired a 2010 French film, “Des Hommes et des Dieux”, ( Of Gods and Men) starring Lambert Wilson and Michael Lonsdale that won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Vatican declared in January that the monks were martyrs for their faith, along with the 12 others slain in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, including Bishop Pierre Claverie of Oran.

Frenchman Claverie, who strove to improve ties between different faiths, was assassinated along with his driver in a bomb attack at his office in 1996.

The five other religious men and six women killed, including citizens of France, Spain, Belgium and Tunisia, were gunned down in 1994 and 1995.

Beatification is the first step on the path to Roman Catholic sainthood. — AFP