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On May 26, 1996, 40,000
church bells rang
throughout France celebrating the lives of seven Trappist monks. Their deaths had been finally confirmed after two months of suspense following their kidnapping by elements of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA). The monks were victims of the GIA’s war against the Algerian government—one that engulfed civilians and foreigners alike during the “black years” of the 1990s. Despite pleas from French and Algerian authorities to leave their monastery for a safer place, the monks stayed out of a sense of mutual dependence and solidarity with their extended family of Muslim villagers.
The Trappists of Notre Dame of the Atlas had established an oasis of peace in a part of Algeria that had a history of resisting French colonialism since 1830. They had lived in harmony with their Muslim neighbors ever since their community had been established at Tibhirine in 1938— a harmony that continued until their kid
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