Christian de Chergé

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Dom Christian de Chergé OCSO (born January 18, 1937 in Colmar , Dep. Haut-Rhin ; † May 21, 1996 in Algeria ) was a French Cistercian and prior of the Notre-Dame de l'Atlas monastery in Tibhirine, Algeria ( Archdiocese of Algiers ). He was murdered in 1996 along with six confreres. The perpetrators are said to have been Muslim fundamentalists from the GIA .

Life

Tibhirine Monastery
Memorial stone for Christian de Chergé in the monastery of Tibhirine

Charles Marie Christian de Chergé was the son of a French professional soldier. He came from a noble aristocratic family (coat of arms saying semper recte , "always upright"; Latin) and had seven siblings. During the Second World War the family lived in Algeria for three years, where Christian later did his military service as an officer during the Algerian War .

Since he had wanted to be a priest since he was eight, Chergé entered the Carmelite seminary in Paris on October 6, 1956 . In 1959 his studies were interrupted when he was called up for military service. Chergé was sent to Algeria as an officer. During this time, as his brother Hubert reports, Christian had his Damascus experience when a Muslim friend saved his life in 1959, who was found dead two days later - slain by radical compatriots. In retrospect, Father de Chergé described the friend's life sacrifice as the greatest love experience of his life and encouraged him in his decision to become a religious.

In 1961 Chergé returned to France. After studying theology, he was ordained a priest on March 21, 1964 in Paris and became chaplain of the Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre basilica . Five years later, on August 20, 1969, the feast of St. Bernhard von Clairvaux , he entered the novitiate of the Trappist Abbey of Notre-Dame d'Aiguebelle in south-eastern France. On January 15, 1971, he went back to Algeria, to the mountain monastery Notre-Dame de l'Atlas in Tibhirine near Médéa, 90 km south of Algiers in the Atlas Mountains, which was a subsidiary of Aiguebelle. From 1972 to 1974 he studied in Rome and made his perpetual profession on October 1, 1976 in Tibhirine . In 1984 he was elected titular prior of the monastery, whose monks worked as doctors and teachers in the predominantly Islamic environment.

On the night of March 26-27, 1996, Dom Christian de Chergé and six other French monks (Fr. Christophe Lebreton, Br. Michel Fleury, Fr. Bruno Lemarchand, Fr. Célestin Ringeard, Br. Paul Favre-Miville and the Konverse Luc Dochier) abducted from their monastery and beheaded. Their mutilated bodies were found eight weeks later near Medéa. The radical " Groupe Islamique Armé " (GIA), an extremist splinter group, confessed to the act. The former Procurator of the Trappists, Armand Vieilleux, is convinced, however, of a plot by the Algerian army, the intention of which was to turn the world public against the guerrillas and their brutalities.

The three surviving members of the convention left Algeria and joined the Trappist convention in Fez, Moroccan . Tibhirine Monastery is orphaned to this day.

estate

Chergé, who had known Islam since childhood, was very committed to Christian-Islamic dialogue . He was a member of the Dialogue interreligieux monastique (DIM) forum initiated by the Benedictine orders (OSB, OCist and OCSO ). His testament, probably compiled on January 6, 1994 from earlier writings and opened on Pentecost 2006 (May 26), is today one of the classics of modern spiritual literature, although it is only a short text. Chergé's written estate, which mainly left reflections on the communion of saints and eschatology , is now administered and published by the Aiguebelle Abbey.

Fonts

  • L'invincible espérance. , Texts by Christian de Chergé, compiled and edited by Bruno Chenu. - Bayard / Centurion, 1997. - ISBN 2-227-43657-3 .
  • Idem. Dieu pour tout jour, Chapitres de Père Christian de Chergé à la communauté de Tibhirine (1986-1996). - Abbaye d'Aiguebelle, 2004.

literature

  • Iso Baumer : The monks of Tibhirine. The Algerian Witnesses of Faith - Background and Hopes . Verlag Neue Stadt, Munich, 2010. ISBN 978-3-87996-911-1 .
  • John W. Kiser: The Monks of Tibhirine. Martyrs of Reconciliation between Christians and Muslims , Ansata, Interlaken (Switzerland) 2002. ISBN 3-7787-7196-5 .
  • Marie-Christine Ray: Christian de Chergé, Prieur de Tibhirine. Bayard / Centurion 1998, ISBN 2-227-43665-4 .
  • Bernardo Olivera : monk, martyr and mystic: Christian de Chergé (1937–1996). In: Heritage and Order , 76, 2000.
  • Christian Salenson: Dig the well deeper. Meditate with Christian de Chergé, prior of the Tibhirine monks . Verlag Neue Stadt, Munich 2010. ISBN 978-3-87996-910-4 .

Movies

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ZENIT : French religious commemorate the Trappists who were murdered in Algeria in 1996 on November 9, 2006
  2. ↑ Biographia Cisterciensis
personal data
SURNAME Chergé, Christian de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French Trappist
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Colmar , Haut-Rhin department, France
DATE OF DEATH May 21, 1996
Place of death Algeria