“May you live and remember” is the clause commonly used by Egyptians to address those commemorating loved ones who passed away. The words carry the solace of stressing the immortal memory of the deceased, and the comfort this memory gives to those on earth. It resonates with the Bible verse of Sirach 44:14 “Their bodies are buried in peace, but their names live on and on”.
If this applies to men and women meeting a more or less ordinary death, how much more then if they were martyrs?
The Libya Martyrs were 21 men, 20 Copts and one Ghanaian, who were martyred in Libya. They became known as “The 21”, the term used as the title of the book The 21: A Journey into the Land of Coptic Martyrs by Martin Mosebach. The book was translated from the original German into English by Alta L. Price, and published by Plough on 15 February 2019.
Martyrs of faith
Egyptians, especially Copts whose traditions borrow heavily on those of ancient Egypt, are renowned for giving their martyrs and saints really memorable commemorations. And this has been the case with The 21, who were migrant labourers in Libya, but were kidnapped and killed for their faith by Daesh, also known as Islamic State (IS) or ISIS, in 2014/2015. On 15 February 2015, a horrific video aired by Daesh showed the brutal beheading of The 21 as they knelt in orange jumpsuits on a beach in Sirte, Libya. The last words they all uttered was a soft prayer: “My Lord Jesus Christ”.
The bodies of the 21 were found by the Libyan authorities in a mass grave in Sirte in October 2017, together with their orange jumpsuits. They were identified by DNA testing, and the 20 Copts were in 2018 returned to Egypt, to the village of al-Our, Minya, some 250km south of Cairo. Al-Our is the home village of 13 of the 20 Coptic martyrs; the other seven came from villages in the same region. They were all buried in a special shrine in a church at al-Our built in their honour in 2018 by the Egyptian State and the Coptic Church.
Given that no one had claimed the body of the Ghanaian martyr, the Coptic Church, in response to wide demand by the Coptic congregation, asked the Libyan government for the body to be brought to Egypt to be buried next to his fellow martyrs. The Church pledged to hand the body over to any authentic claimant through official channels. The body was shipped to Egypt in 2020, and is buried in the shrine together with the 20 Coptic martyrs.
Feast of Modern Day Martyrs
The Coptic Church designated 15 February, the date in 2015 when the video of the beheading was aired, as an annual feast to celebrate the Libya Martyrs, and all modern-day martyrs of faith as well.
On 15 February every year, Masses are held in churches all over Egypt to honour the martyrs.
The great commemoration, however, is reserved to the church of the Martyrs of Faith and the Nation in al-Our where the shrine of The 21 is located.
The feast day is normally preceded by a week-long spiritual programme which the Copts term “spiritual reawakening”. The programme involves daily Mass every morning, and Vespers in the evening followed by hymns, praises, and Bible study or sermons given by some of the Coptic Churches’ senior figures. A procession of white-robed deacons in their red sashes, carrying the photographs of the martyrs, tours the church to chants of praises especially written for the 21 martyrs.
This year, the spiritual reawakening started on 9 February and concluded with Mass at al-Our church on 16 February 2024. Presiding over that Mass was Anba Paphnutius, Bishop of Samalout; al-Our lies in the parish of Samalout.
The bishops participating in the Vespers services were: Anba Paphnutius; Anba Raphael, Bishop-General of Downtown Cairo; Anba Stephanos, Bishop of Biba and al-Fashn; Anba Thomas, Bishop-General and Abbot of the monastery of the Holy Virgin and Archangel in Bahnasa; Anba Yulius, Bishop-General of Old Cairo and BLESS; Anba Dioscoros, Abbot of the monastery of St John the Short; and Anba Angaelos, Bishop of London.
Christ’s open arms
Five years following their gruesome beheading in Libya in 2015, the Libya Martyrs were given a museum to their name, and a memorial depicting them under the open, all-embracing arms of Christ the Lord in Whose name they laid down their lives.
Anba Paphnutious unveiled the memorial and opened the museum on 15 February 2020, in an event that witnessed a procession led by the martyrs’ children, the boys in white robes and red sashes, the girls in white and crowned with white daisies. They placed wreaths of white flowers on the martyrs depicted in the memorial.
The five metre-high, five metre-wide memorial was sculpted by Girgis al-Gawly, professor of Sculpture at Minya University. It occupies the place of honour before the church entrance. Made of concrete, it depicts the 21 martyrs—the Ghanaian Ayariga is at the forefront—kneeling as in the video of their beheading. Jesus Christ stands behind, embracing them with His open arms.
The Libya Martyrs’ Museum showcases a ‘panorama’ of their martyrdom documented in photographs and texts in the Arabic, English, and French languages. The English and French versions were taken from texts published by Watani. The panorama includes everything about the martyrs’ kidnapping and beheading; their bodies arriving at Cairo Airport then home to al-Our. It showcases the coffins in which their bodies were flown to Cairo, their passports, the orange jumpsuits they wore when they were beheaded, the ropes that were knotted around their hands, and a few belongings found in their pockets.
Watani International
19 February 2024
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