Martyrs of Algeria
The Martyrs of Algeria were a group of nineteen individuals slain in Algeria between 1994 and 1996 during the Algerian Civil War. They all were priests or professed religious belonging to religious congregations, including seven Trappist Cistercian monks; one was a bishop. Their nations of origin were France (15), French protectorate of Tunisia (1), Spain (2), and Belgium (1). Their collective cause for beatification opened on 31 March 2007 titling them all as Servants of God. Pope Francis confirmed their beatification in 2018 and the group was beatified in Oran on 8 December 2018. Tibhirine monks and  Claverie. The Martyrs of Algieria refers to nineteen individuals slain during the course of the Algerian Civil War from 1994 until the death of the Bishop of Oran, Pierre Claverie in 1996. The death of the Trappist monks from the Atlas monastery remain controversial since there are reports that the armed forces or the Armed Islamic Group carried out the killings with the latter having owned up to the executions themselves. The seven Trappist monks from their Atlas monastery were kidnapped at around 1:15am on 27 March 1996 after 20 armed men stormed the place and took the monks prisoner  leaving two other, overlooked monks in separate rooms. The telephone lines had been cut meaning a call to police was impossible for the two hidden monks while an enforced curfew meant the two could not drive to the nearest police station. The seven monks were all beheaded two months later and were discovered though the bodies were not. The funeral for the monks was celebrated at Notre-Dame d'Afrique in Algiers on 2 June and their remains were interred at the Tibhirine convent on 4 June. Beatified. The nineteen individuals beatified were: Commemorations. On 30 May 2016, the Mayor of  Paris, Anne Hidalgo, unveiled a plaque to commemorate the seven Tibhirine monks at a ceremony naming a garden in the square Saint Ambrose in the 6th arrondissement in their honor as "Square des Moines Tibhirine". Beatification. The first step towards the beatification came on 5 July 2006 when it was decided that the diocesan process of investigation would take place not in Oran but in the capital Algiers. The official beginning of the cause came following this under Pope Benedict XVI on 31 March 2007 after the Congregation for the Causes of Saints titled them all as Servants of God  and issued the "nihil obstat" to initiate the proceedings. The diocesan process was opened on 5 October 2007 under Henri Teissier and was closed on 9 July 2012 under Ghaleb Moussa Abdalla Bader. The C.C.S. validated this process on 15 February 2013 and received the Positio dossier for assessment in 2016. On 1 September 2017 the Archbishop of Algiers Paul Jacques Marie Desfarges and the Bishop of Oran Jean-Paul Vesco met with Pope Francis in a private audience to discuss the cause since theologians had approved the cause at that stage. This meant the C.C.S. needed to approve it  before it would be taken to Francis for papal approval. The pope encouraged the bishops and encouraged the cause to proceed. Francis approved the cause on 26 January 2018. The Algerian government granted permission in April 2018 for the beatification to be celebrated on national soil after consultation with ecclesial authorities. The beatification was celebrated in Oran on 8 December 2018 with Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu presiding on the pope's behalf. The postulator for this cause since 11 October 2013 was the Trappist priest Thomas Georgeon. In popular culture. The 2010 French film drama "Of Gods and Men" depicts  the lives of the seven Trappist monks until their kidnapping.