Pilgrims in Lourdes remember French monks murdered during Algerian civil war

Presided over by the Archbishop of Algiers, Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, the pilgrimage marking the Catholic Feast of the Assumption in Lourdes—one of the two most important of the year—paid tribute on Sunday to the monks of Tibhirine, thirty years after their assassination.

"They had chosen to stay and to love" Algeria, the prelate declared during a service attended by some 12,000 people gathered in the underground Basilica of St. Pius X, located within the Pyrenean sanctuary in southwestern France.

"They built peace with what they had: books, medicines, prayer, friendship, and their faith," he added, while blessing a large, newly installed icon dedicated to the "Blessed Martyrs of Algeria." These victims include the seven Trappist monks of Tibhirine, as well as the Bishop of Oran and other clergy members killed in Algeria between 1994 and 1996—during the country's "Black Decade" of civil war, which claimed nearly 200,000 lives between 1992 and 2002.

However, honoring these nineteen religious figures—beatified in 2018—is not about reopening the wounds of those years, but rather looking toward the future, Jean-Paul Vesco emphasized.

"Disarming peace"

"There is a real misconception to avoid: imagining that we are talking about the past, about Christians killed by Muslims. That would be a counter-witness; the true witness is precisely that of Christians and Muslims facing an ordeal together," he observed.

For Sister Marie-Thérèse, a nun who attended Sunday's celebrations, the monks embodied that "disarming and unarmed peace" spoken of by Pope Francis, who himself visited Algeria in April.

"How can I ask the other person to lay down their arms if I remain on the defensive, if I remain mistrustful? That really strikes me," she noted. For her part, Marie—a 54-year-old engineer from Paris and a pilgrimage volunteer—recalls the Tibhirine massacre: "I was 25 when they were murdered; at that age, you are so young—you don't understand why there is so much hatred."

Yet Marie also wants to remember that "they bore witness to the very end of their lives, telling themselves: 'Hatred will not win.'"

Awaiting the Pope

Reflecting on the monks, Cardinal Vesco called upon the faithful gathered at Lourdes to "transcend religious boundaries" and "stereotypes" in order to demonstrate fraternity between communities.

Based in Algeria since the early 2000s and holding dual French-Algerian nationality, the cardinal emphasized to AFP: "Being a Christian in a Muslim society means—I was about to say—being compelled to look beyond stereotypes."

"Encountering one another is simply what allows us to move past our preconceived notions about the other person, and about the other person's religion."

"It is a message of peace... one that we need so desperately today—at a time when the sounds of war and the urge for conflict are everywhere," he added. The Assumption pilgrimage—which, in the Catholic faith, marks the ascent into heaven of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, around August 15—is one of the two most important pilgrimages to Lourdes, alongside the Rosary pilgrimage in the autumn.

On both occasions, thousands of pilgrims and sick people flock to the sanctuary, particularly to pray at the grotto where the Mother of Christ is said to have appeared to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858.

However, even larger crowds are expected next autumn for the visit to France by Pope Leo XIV, who will spend two days there on September 26 and 27.

As of August 15, some 90,000 people had registered for the Pope's visit, and 150,000 people—the site's maximum capacity—are expected for the Mass, according to the sanctuary's communications department.