Beheaded Egyptians to be included in Coptic calendar of saints

Abigail Frymann Rouch
the Tablet
February 23, 2015

The Coptic Orthodox Church is to commemorate in its calendar of saints the 21 Egyptian Christian labourers beheaded in Libya earlier this month. The Coptic leader, Pope Tawadros, announced that the names of the 21 men murdered by Islamic State jihadists will be added to the Synaxarium, the Coptic Church’s equivalent to the Roman Martyrology.

This procedure is also equivalent to canonisation in the Latin Church.

According to the website terrasanta.net, the martyrdom of the 21 Copts will be commemorated on 8th Amshir of the Coptic calendar, 15 February in the Gregorian calendar – the day on which footage of the killings was made public. It is also the feast-day of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple.

The Coptic Catholic bishop of Giza, Bishop Antonios Mina, said: “The name of Jesus is the last word that escaped their lips. As in the passion of the first martyrs (…), they celebrated their victory. That victory that no murderer can take away from them. That name whispered at the last second of life is like a seal on their martyrdom.” Pope Francis last week hailed the men “martyrs” and “brothers”.

Beshir Kamel, the brother of two of the Copts who died, thanked the Islamic State for including the men’s declaration of faith in the videos. “ISIS gave us more than we asked when they didn’t edit out the part where they declared their faith and called upon Jesus Christ. ISIS helped us strengthen our faith,” he told the Christian channel SAT-7 Arabic.

Beshir said the martyrdom of his brothers, Bishoy and Samuel, was “a badge of honour to Christianity.”

Kamel’s interview went viral, receiving over 100,000 views within hours of being posted online.

Asked what his reaction would be if he saw an Islamic State militant, Kamel told the interviewer how his mother has said she would respond. "My mother, an uneducated woman in her sixties, said she would ask [him] to enter her house and ask God to open his eyes because he was the reason her son entered the kingdom of heaven,” Beshir said.

The leader of the Coptic Church in the UK, Bishop Angaelos, said he had already forgiven the men’s murderers.

“We don't forgive the act because the act is heinous. But we do forgive the killers from the depths of our hearts,” he told the Huffington Post on Friday, adding: “Otherwise, we would become consumed by anger and hatred. It becomes a spiral of violence that has no place in this world.” The website terrasanta.net commented that Egypt’s Copts hoped that the tragedy provides “the long-awaited and necessary shock that brings to an end the anti-Christian demonstrations and violence that it constantly has to put up with”.

On the day the footage of the beheadings was released, Egypt’s Catholic Coptic Church celebrated the consecration of its first ever church in Sinai.

The name of Our Lady of Peace, in the community of Sharm El-Sheikh, was chosen by Susanne Mubarak, wife of the ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Mrs Mubarak, who was educated by Catholic nuns, and ensured that construction of the church went ahead, after years of delay and opposition by local political leadership.