TIBHIRIN MONASTERY
Attached to the abbey of Notre-Dame d'Aiguebelle, the monastery of Notre-Dame de l'Atlas was founded in 1938 by a few Trappist monks on the agricultural land of Tibhirine, 7 kilometers from Medea.
The monastery, which received the status of abbey in 1947 and autonomous priory in 1984, had become what the prior of the community, Christian de Chergé, so much desired, a "house of prayer for all peoples. Maintaining very good relations with the Algerian people, the monks of Tibhirine created an agricultural cooperative with the inhabitants of the village and cultivated the land together. Despite the rise of the FIS and Islamist threats, the monks unanimously decided to remain at Tibhirine. Seven of the nine monks were kidnapped on the night of March 26-27, 1996. Their murder, several weeks after their abduction, was attributed to the GIA but an investigation is still underway. A place of painful memories, the monastery is becoming one of the inevitable stops on a pilgrimage. Recently reopened to the public, it has been the object of restoration work and it is now possible to reside there in exchange for a donation to the monastery. All people, regardless of their faith, are welcome for a spiritual retreat or a quiet stay for a certain period.
Visit the premises. The monastery is since September 2016 entrusted by the Catholic Church in Algeria to the Chemin-Neuf Community. To visit the place, you can make an appointment at +213 6 96 23 10 22.
For security reasons, a police escort accompanies all foreign visitors on their way out and it is forbidden to leave without this escort, which is sometimes slow in coming (allow some time at the end of the visit).
Testament of Christan de Chergé, Algiers, December1, 1993, Tibhirine, January1, 1994
"If it should happen to me one day - and it could be today - that I should become a victim of the terrorism which seems to want to encompass all foreigners living in Algeria, I would like my community, my Church, my family, to remember that my life was given to God and to this country. May they accept that the only Master of all life could not be a stranger to this brutal departure. May they pray for me: how could I be found worthy of such an offering? May they know how to associate this death with so many other violent deaths, left in the indifference of anonymity. My life is no more valuable than any other - nor is it any less valuable. In any case, it does not have the innocence of childhood, I have lived enough to know that I am an accomplice to the evil that seems, alas, to prevail in the world, and even to that which would strike me blindly. I would like, when the time comes, to have this lapse of lucidity that would allow me to ask for God's forgiveness and that of my brothers in humanity, at the same time as forgiving wholeheartedly those who would have hurt me. I could not wish such a death. I think it is important to say this. I do not see, indeed, how I could rejoice that the people I love are indiscriminately accused of my murder. It is too high a price to pay for what may be called the "grace of martyrdom" to owe it to an Algerian, whoever he may be, especially if he says he is acting in fidelity to what he believes to be Islam. [...] Algeria and Islam, for me it is something else, it is a body and a soul. I have proclaimed it enough, I believe in view of what I have received from it, finding there so often this straight line of the Gospel learned at the knees of my mother, my very first Church. Precisely in Algeria, and, already, in the respect of Muslim believers. My death, of course, will seem to vindicate those who were quick to call me naive, or an idealist: "Let him say now what he thinks!" But those must know that my most nagging curiosity will finally be freed. Here I will be able, if it pleases God, to plunge my gaze into that of the Father to contemplate with him his children of Islam such as he sees them, all illuminated by the glory of Christ, fruits of his Passion invested by the gift of the Spirit whose secret joy will always be to establish communion and to re-establish resemblance by playing with differences. This lost life, totally mine and totally theirs, I give thanks to God who seems to have wanted it all for this joy, in spite of everything. In this thank you where everything is said, from now on of my life I include you of course friends of yesterday and today, and you, oh my friends from here alongside my mother and father, my sisters and brothers and theirs, a hundredfold granted as it was promised! And you too, the friend of the last minute, who would not have known what you were doing. Yes, for you too I want this thank you, and this "To God" considered from you. And may we meet again as happy thieves, in paradise if it pleases God, our Father. Amen! Inch'Allah!"
To go further, do not hesitate to discover or rediscover the superb film Des hommes et des dieux by Xavier Beauvois. Awarded at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, the film retraces the last three years of the lives of the monks of Tibhirine.
Good to know: The monastery receives no subsidies and lives solely on the income from its small agricultural production; you can therefore also buy products from it in the small store on site (jams, etc.).
