Notre-Dame de l'Atlas monastery

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Coordinates: 36 ° 17 ′ 44.2 "  N , 2 ° 42 ′ 55.1"  E

Map: Algeria
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Notre-Dame de l'Atlas monastery​
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Algeria
The monastery seen from the fields
Tibhirine monastery cemetery

The Monastery Notre-Dame de l'Atlas (lat. Monasterium Beatae Mariae de Atlante ) is a Trappist - monastery in Tibhirine ( Algeria ), in the province of Médéa , about 90 km south of Algiers in the Atlas Mountains . In 1996, during the Algerian civil war , seven monks were kidnapped from the monastery and beheaded. The monastery has been orphaned since then.

history

The monastery was founded on March 7, 1938, as a subsidiary of the Aiguebelle monastery . Even earlier, from 1843, the monks from Aiguebelle were active in Algeria to teach the population in modern methods of agriculture. At the beginning, 13 monks of the Trappist order lived in the monastery (a reform branch of the Cistercian order).

In 1951 about 30 monks lived in this convent .

During the Algerian War in 1959, two monks were kidnapped by the Fellaghas , but later released. After Algeria declared independence in 1962, the monks were hindered and oppressed by the state. At that time there were only a few monks left in the monastery. Thanks to mutual respect between the monks, who also worked as doctors and teachers, and the predominantly Islamic population, the monastery was able to be kept in the area in the following decades, despite suspicion on the part of the state, the army and some Islamist groups.

In 1976 the buildings were taken over by the state; however, the monks were able to continue to cultivate 12 hectares of land. Together with the village population, they founded an agricultural cooperative . The abbot (head) of the community at that time was Jean de la Croix Przyluski.

In 1984 the community was again granted monastery status. Christian de Chergé was appointed prior. In addition to monastery life, the monks continued to work primarily in agriculture, as teachers and doctors.

Kidnapping and murder of the monks

On the night of March 26-27, 1996, in the midst of the Algerian civil war , a group of armed men forcibly entered the monastery and kidnapped seven of the monks (all of French nationality): the prior Christian de Chergé and the monks Bruno Lemarchand, Célestin Ringeard, Michel Fleury, Luc Dochier, Paul Favre-Miville and Christophe Lebreton. Two monks were able to hide. A short time later, the Groupe Islamique Armé (GIA), a terrorist splinter group, committed to the act and demanded the release of one of its leaders in exchange for the release of the monks. The last sign of life of the monks is a tape recording of April 20th with their voices in captivity; the tape was sent to the French embassy in Algiers on April 30th. The monks were beheaded and their heads were found on May 30 near Médéa. The monks' bodies were not found.

The murders were never fully solved. A former Procurator of the Trappists, Armand Vieilleux , believes that a plot by the Algerian army was responsible for raising the global public against the terrorist groups in the country . This is essentially confirmed by Abdelkader Tigha , an uninvolved staff sergeant of the Algerian military secret service ( DRS ) who was then deployed in the local intelligence center ( CTRI ) of Blida :
France had previously stopped working with the Algerian generals and the Algerian secret service, under Among other things, because the DRS had not passed on any information about the planning of the attacks in Paris despite their knowledge. In order to force cooperation again, intelligence coordinator General Smain Lamari arranged for the monks to be kidnapped. The actual kidnapping was carried out by a group that included members of the CTRI and members of the Special Operations Command ( GIS ) led by Major Lahia Bey Lajmi , aka Turki. A part of the GIA controlled by the secret service was also involved. This was under the direction of the agent Azzout Mouloud , who was recruited by the DRS and at the same time head of communications and intelligence at the GIA, responsible for its international network and organizer of the Paris attacks. The leader of the GIA, Djamal Zitouni , actually rather insignificant and also a recruited agent, was involved. The monks were hidden in Tala Karmout , a dilapidated group of houses in the Algerian bush forest. At first the situation was still under full control of the secret service, the announcements of the GIA and also the tape ultimately came from the secret service. But then, according to Abdelkader Tighavon, the monks were kidnapped again by another group of the GIA, a group under the command of Bisi Hussein , which was not under the control of the secret service and which disagreed with Djamal Zitouni and Mouloud Azzout.
Former Procurator Armand Veilleux reports that he learned from French embassy officials that the monks had perished from machine gun fire before they were beheaded. The retired French General Francois Buchwalter , then a French military attaché in Algiers, reports that he knew from an Algerian friend that his brother was a pilot of a helicopter that attacked Islamist guerrillas in a camp in the mountains between Blida and Medea . After landing, the bodies of the monks, riddled with helicopter weapons, were found. A few days after Buchwalter's testimony, however, one of the founders of the GIA, Abdelhak Layada, reiterated that the monks were killed by the GIA after the breakdown of negotiations with the French secret service.

A Trappist from the Tamié mountain monastery told the French newspaper L'Express in July 2009 about the recent statements of the court by Buchwalter: “I now know as much as I knew in 1996. I have tapes from the kidnapping. There the monks speak by name. The sound quality is impressive. Impossible that guerrillas had such recorders ... Our monks were a thorn in someone's side. The murders followed an inevitable logic. If guerrillas were involved, it was directed henchmen. I rule out a mistake by the army ... I ask France and Algeria to provide a comprehensive explanation. We die for Christ, so we want to know why we are dying for Christ. "

present

The monastery in Tibhirine is still orphaned as the political situation remains tense. The buildings of the former monastery are poorly maintained by the population and employees of the Archdiocese of Algiers.

The two surviving monks moved to the Trappist monastery in Fez , Moroccan , on June 2, 1996 , which was founded in 1984 as a branch of the Tibhirine monastery. In 2000 the monks of the priory “Notre Dame de l'Atlas” moved to the Moroccan city of Midelt ( Meknes region ). It is the only Trappist monastery in Morocco, there are currently four monks living there. An oratory in the priory commemorates the martyrs of Tibhirine. In addition, since June 2010 the relics of the hermit Albert Peyriguère , who also led a Christian life in a Muslim environment, have been in a chapel dedicated to him.

beatification

In August 2016, the Order submitted the documentation on the life and martyrdom of monks to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints . On January 26, 2018, Pope Francis recognized the martyrdom of monks as a prerequisite for beatification, along with the martyrdom of the Bishop of Oran, Pierre Claverie , and another 11 religious who were murdered in Algeria between 1994 and 1996: the nuns Paul- Hélène Saint-Raymond, Esther Paniagua Alonso, Caridad Álvarez Martín, Angèle-Marie Littlejohn, Bibiane Leclercq and Odette Prévost, the Marist brother Henri Vergès and the White Fathers Jean Chevillard, Alain Dieulangard, Charles Deckers and Christian Chessel. The beatification of the 19 martyrs by Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu , Prefect of the Congregation for Causes of Saints, took place in Oran on December 8, 2018.

Movies

First documentaries

  • 2003: Brother Luc, moine de Tibhirine . Documentary by Silvère Lang. Testimony from Algerian neighbors and employees of the monastery.
  • 2006: Le Testament de Tibhirine - Documentary by Emmanuel Audrain

2010: Of people and gods

The film, which won awards in Cannes (original title: Des hommes et des dieux ), was researched and prepared by director Xavier Beauvois and actors (including Lambert Wilson , Michael Lonsdale , Philippe Laudenbach and Jacques Herlin ) in the French monastery of Tamié . Lambert Wilson said in an interview: “I think people love this film because it brings certain values ​​that we need today: love, brotherhood, approaching the neighbors. The film says: don't be afraid of others! At a time when everyone says - especially in France: be afraid of the Roma! Am afraid of the Arabs! Watch out! Watch out! Watch out! These men will show you what can be achieved with an opposing philosophy: Go and help the others! "

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
  • Freddy Derwahl : The last monk of Tibhirine. adeo, Asslar 2012. ISBN 978-3-942208-69-7
  • Andreas Herzog: “Signum in montibus.” For the beatification of the seven brothers of the Notre-Dame de l'Atlas monastery on December 8, 2018 in Oran, Algeria . In: Analecta Cisterciensia 68 (2018), pp. 313-318.
  • Bernardo Olivera : Our brothers from Atlas. Witnesses for Christ in Muslim Algeria. Bernardus-Verlag, Langwaden 1999. ISBN 3-934551-00-9
  • Bernardo Olivera: monk, martyr and mystic: Christian de Chergé (1937–1996). In: Erbe and mandate 76 (2000).
  • Marie-Christine Ray: Christian de Chergé, Prieur de Tibhirine. Centurion, Bayard 1998. ISBN 2-227-43665-4

See also

Web links

Commons : Notre-Dame de l'Atlas  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Armand Veilleux: Le témoignage des Martyrs de Tibhirine . Site of Scourmont Abbey. Retrieved January 26, 2011.
  2. ^ Les moines du monastère de Tibhirine ( Memento of July 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). Website of the Catholic Church in Algeria. Retrieved January 26, 2011.
  3. ↑ a b Algeria-Watch: Who killed the monks of Tibhirin? Retrieved December 12, 2010 .
  4. ↑ Lara Marlowe: Sarkozy to release details about beheaded monks in Algeria. irishtimes.com (The Irish Times), August 7, 2009, accessed December 12, 2010 .
  5. ^ GIA executed French monks in Algeria in 1996: former chief ( English ) AFP . July 9, 2009. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
  6. ↑ cf. L'EXPRESS, 06/07/2009, Vincent Hugeux, "Depuis le début, la France officielle savait pour les moines de Tibéhirine", http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/monde/depuis-le-debut-la -france-officielle-savait-pour-les-moines-de-tibehirine_772815.html
  7. ↑ French religious commemorate the Trappists who were murdered in Algeria in 1996 on November 9, 2006
  8. ↑ Presentation of the Abbaye Notre Dame de l'Atlas (in French) ( Memento of August 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Vatican Radio: Beatification process for monks of Tibhirine ( Memento of July 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), July 14, 2016.
  10. ^ Promulgazione di Decreti della Congregazione delle Cause dei Santi. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office , January 27, 2018, accessed January 27, 2018 (Italian).
  11. ↑ Tibhirine monks are recognized as martyrs. Vatican News , January 27, 2018, accessed January 27, 2018 .
  12. ^ Armand Veilleux: Assassinés là où ils œuvraient. Béatification des martyrs d'Algérie . In: Alliance Inter-Monastères: Bulletin de l'AIM , ISSN  1779-4811 , Vol. 2019, No. 116, pp. 33-36.
  13. ↑ Cardinal Becciu: Take monks of Tibhirine as an example. Vatican News, November 22, 2018, accessed November 22, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Omelia del Prefetto della Congregation of Cause of Saints in occasione della Beatificazione dei martiri Mons. Pierre Claverie, OP, Vescovo di Oran, e 18 compagni (religiosi e religious) in Algeria. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office, December 8, 2018, accessed December 8, 2018 (Italian).
  15. ↑ Brief description ( memento of March 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (French)
  16. ↑ Bernd Sobolla: Of people and gods . In: grain of salt. Incitement to a shared Christian life (1/2011), p. 23.