By Lorenzo Fazzini
In the heart of Paris, an exhibition recounts the story of the martyrs of Algeria—the 19 men and women who were killed in North African country between 1994 and 1996.
At the Collège des Bernardins, the exhibition Called Twice. The Martyrs of Algeria, is organized into twenty panels and two videos. Conceived and curated by the Vatican Publishing House (LEV) and the Oasis Foundation, the exhibition will remain open throughout the week at the cultural center of the Parisian Church.
Pope Benedict XVI inaugurated the center in 2008 when he delivered a speech on the relationship between the search for God and culture.
Black Decade and kidnapping of Tibhirine monks
The 19 martyrs are an example of the search for God among the Algerian people, standing in solidarity with people during the dark years of the Black Decade (the Algerian civil war), which claimed over 150,000 victims in the North African country, including one hundred imams, intellectuals, and journalists who opposed violence.
The 30th anniversary of the abduction of the seven French Trappist monks from the Notre Dame de l’Atlas monastery, which took place in the night between Mar 26 and 27, 1996, is approaching. Weeks later, the men were killed on May 30 of the same year.
To commemorate this anniversary, the exhibition, which debuted last August at the Foundation Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples (Rimini Meeting), is currently on display in Rome and Milan. In the coming days, it will also be displayed in Lourdes during the General Assembly of French Bishops, before moving on to Oxford, Genoa, and Turin.
Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, Archbishop of Paris and president of the French Bishops’ Conference, who strongly advocated for the exhibition to be brought to France, reflected on how important the showcase is to preserving the memory of the 19 martyrs.
“This exhibition, Called Twice, shows that in the small Church of Algeria—which was and still is very fragile and precarious today—faithfulness to Christ means being close to the people we are given as companions on the day’s journey. For this reason, these religious men and women stayed close to the Algerian people, even to the point of giving their lives.”
Voices present at the inauguration
Those present at the inauguration included Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris, the president of the IOR (the Vatican Bank), Jean-Baptiste de Franssu from the Collège des Bernardins; the Holy See’s Observer to UNESCO, Fr. Roberto Campisi; and Bishop Emeritus of Laghouat-Ghardaïa Claude Rault and Martino Borrello, president of Forum Paris, which is the association that organized the exhibition at the Bernardins along with the Bayard Publishing Group.
In the spring of 1996, Bayard published for the first time the famous testament of Christian de Chergé—an important spiritual text that was read aloud at the Paris exhibition by renowned writer Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt.
A heart-moving meeting
François Morinière, president of the Bayard Group, explained how happy they were to have the exhibition at the Collège des Bernardins.
“We learned about it after meeting with the Vatican Publishing House, and it is a project about the story of the Algerian martyrs, which has deeply moved the French Church and many Catholics like me,” he said.
A family connection
A large group of family members connected to the 19 martyrs were also present at the inauguration. They reflected on the memory of their loved ones, who were beatified in Oran on December 8, 2008, for the selfless gift of their lives as a sign of fidelity to God and to their brothers.
The nephew of Frère Christian, prior of the Tibhirine monastery, Bruno de Chergé, stated the connection between this exhibition and a film from 2010. “In its own way, this exhibition does what the film Of Gods and Men did. It tells the world the message of the Tibhirine monks.”
He explained that “these Trappist religious men were supposed to remain hidden and virtually unknown to the world. And yet, their tragic deaths revealed their existence to the entire world. This is a testimony…of their witness, of their lives given and offered to Christ, the Church, and Algeria.”
Their legacy lives on
The Called Twice exhibition will once again be displayed in Paris from May 8 to 10, to commemorate the liturgical feast of the Martyrs of Algeria (May 8), a country Pope Leo XIV will visit on his upcoming Apostolic Journey. – Vatican News
