The blood of love The martyrs of Algeria (1994-1996) The Church of Algeria This booklet presents a group of nineteen martyrs of the Church of Algeria. All were passionate about their Church, of which they were zealous servants, and passionate also about Algeria and its people where they had weaved their friendships. Humble and gentle, the Lord radiated from their hearts, in their lives and in their silence. They witnessed to a settled, lucid faith, the faith of those preparing the space for dialogue in their prayer and in their presence. They are a very beautiful image of the Church of Algeria: small, a few thousand faithful people, dispersed in four dioceses: Alger, Oran, Constantine- Ippone et Laghouat. It is a living Church by its poverty as it has lost its social power and pomp. Daily, it lives love and service. Thus purified and without ambitions, it can be a bridgehead for dialogue with Islam. The small Church of Algeria is conscious that On the cover: it is living a prophetic Our Lady of Africa – mission, that of creating Cathedral of Algiers. 2 • THE BLOOD OF LOVE for tomorrow the climate for The Church of Algeria does not a most peaceful dialogue forget that it is the inheritor between the Christian faith and of Saint Augustine, the Moslem faith, in the Saint Cyprian and Tertullien. certitude that we are all sons These are all men of light that and daughters of God, the work prepared times of change. of his hands and that the sons The prophetical nature of the and daughters of God will finish small Church of Algeria will by recognising each other. enlighten the horizon of For the Moslem majority of tomorrow. It is not for nothing Algerians, the Church of that these martyrs died with Algeria signifies the other, the a very great number of Moslem one who is different, the one brothers. Together they who allows one to be aware of intercede that our humanity his identity and his own faith, becomes more welcoming, by his difference and his more tolerant, more human presence, leading to respect for and capable of giving glory to mankind. God in his diversity. THE MARTYRS OF ALGERIA • 3 Brother ✤“Dear Brother Henri was an authentic witness to the love Henri Vergès of Christ, to the absolute self-denial of the Church and A man who to fidelity to the Algerian people.” always tended Henri thus summarised his lived towards more experience in the house of clarity and Islam: simplicity. ✤“… It is my Marist Born on the commitment that has allowed 15th July 1930 me, despite my limitations, in the East to harmoniously be part of the Pyrenees, France. At 12 years of Moslem environment, and my age, he started his journey life in this environment, in towards Marist life. At 22 years its turn, has made me more of age, he pronounced his profoundly a Marist Christian. perpetual vows as a Little May God be praised!” Brother of Mary. From 1958 to In 1986, he wrote: 1966 he was sub-master of ✤“Let the Peace of Christ novices in Corrèze (Notre-Dame invade me always more and de Lacabane). On the 6th August more intimately. Patience, 1969 he arrived in Algeria. His gentleness towards myself, apostolic life in this country patience, gentleness towards all, knew three stages: in particular the young people I from 1969 to 1976 he was the Lord entrusts to me. Virgin Director of the St. Bonaventure Mary, make me an instrument school, in Algiers; of peace for the world. I from 1976 to 1988 he was ✤“Patience, calm and a teacher of mathematics at the tranquil perseverance. As the Sour-El-Ghozlane ; sower who entrusts his grain to I from 1988 onwards he the earth and allows the time of worked in Algiers, responsible God to do its work. An essential for the diocesan library that attitude for an educator: more than a thousand young especially as I do not know the people from the neighbourhood rhythm of development of each of the Casbah frequented. He of these young people. God has was murdered in his work simply sent me to sow the seed in office, with Sister Paul-Hélène, the field chosen by Him: thus to on the 8th May 1994, in the early sow in peace and to leave him afternoon. During his funeral, to look after the growth. Without on Thursday 12th May, being surprised by the presence the feast of the Ascension, of the cross, as in the life Cardinal Duval declared: of Jesus himself.” 4 • THE BLOOD OF LOVE THE MARIST BROTHERS A Family without Frontiers: At the heart of the World, at the heart of the Church 4,200 Brothers, from all continents, present in 76 countries. Working as Christian educators for the children and youth to make out of them men and Christ’s disciples. A religious family that opens its spirituality, its charism and its mission to all Christians who want to live and collaborate with the Brothers. Guided by the pedagogical principles of Marcellin Champagnat : – To educate well one must love! – To educate well, one must train the whole person: the citizen and the Christian! – To educate well one must live with the young ones! – To educate well one must offer God’s paternal and maternal tenderness. – To educate well one must allow himself to be inspired by Mary, Christ’s Mother and Educator. – To educate well, one must open his heart to children and youth in difficulty. Guided by Marcellin Champagnat’s Spirituality We go to the young ones because we ourselves are loved by Jesus: We go to the young ones with our eyes turned to Mary, the Good Mother: “Our apostolic action is a participation in her spiritual maternity.” (Const. 84) Our motto is: “All to Jesus through Mary,all to Mary for Jesus.” With Marcellin’s ambition: “All the dioceses of the world attract us.” Saint Marcellin Champagnat (1789-1840) The Founder of the Marist Brothers and a true father to them – A heart that knew no bounds, A man of faith and action, A born educator and a trainer of educators, A man of relationships and communion, A man of God and a Marial apostle, A humble, simple, discreet and happy man. THE MARTYRS OF ALGERIA • 5 Sister Paul-Hélène social Centre of the Little Sisters of the Assumption that Saint-Raymond offered the poor people of the neighbourhood a home She was born service: nursing care, family in Paris on work and a private dispensary. the 24th At Casablanca, she was January 1927. responsible for a service for While she was premature babies. She was an engineer, also particularly attentive to in 1952 she those who, for political entered the reasons, lived secretly. When Little Sisters of the Assumption she returned to Algeria in where she pronounced her 1984, she lived in community perpetual vows in 1960. From at Ksar el Boukhari, where she 1954 to 1957 her apostolate was a school nurse. was with working families at It was 1988 that she rejoined Creil; then she did some the community of Belcourt in studies as a nurse, a profession Algiers and worked in the that led her to the working library of the Casbah with class sections of Paris. During Brother Henri Vergès. these years her missionary It was there that she was sense and availability murdered, at the same time as deepened and she wrote Brother Henri Vergès, on the on the vigil of her 8th May 1994. In the last perpetual vows, period that she lived in ✤ “I also see myself Algeria, Paul-Hélène said she as a missionary, in the service was very challenged by the of God and of the Church, violence and she added: here and elsewhere, in a small ✤ “We need corner of Paris or in South to commence to fight against America… but I have the deep our own violence.” desire to be totally available… When Father Teissier warned wherever God would want the community as to the risks, me to be.” she responded: In 1963, she was sent to ✤ “Father, in any way Algiers. She stayed there until our lives are already given.” 1974 and then spent one year One sister gave this testimony: at Tunis, nine years at ✤ “Her life was given, Casablanca and then returned delivered to the little ones to Algiers in 1984. During her and to the poor whom first stay in Algiers, she was she passionately loved, the mainspring at the medical- welcomed and from whom 6 • THE BLOOD OF LOVE she would say she received so for the beliefs of others, much. Her way of ‘announcing a deeply personal aspect of her Jesus Christ’ in the Moslem Christian faith, demanded society was for her the respect in life by the Gospel.” THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE ASSUMPTION To procure the glory of God by the salvation of the poor and the little ones “In Jesus Christ, life and mission make only one.” Our mission takes us into popular neighbourhoods, towards the excluded, those without a voice, the ‘displaced’, attentive to the cau- ses of family disintegration, particularly with young people and women in difficulty. Our activities take on the colour of the country where the congregation is implanted; everywhere there is humble work, presence and action. “May your actions speak of Jesus Christ!” our Founder used to say. It is thus ‘in the actions of daily life that we want to manifest the love of the Father to others.’ We encourage the places of dialogue, all sorts of meetings in our sub- urbs or at work, seeking to put people in contact with each other and to foster communities of faith.