TIBHIRIN MONASTERY

Attached to the Notre-Dame d'Aiguebelle abbey, the Notre-Dame de l'Atlas monastery was founded in 1938 by a group of Trappist monks on the Tibhirine farming estate 7 kilometers from Médéa.

Granted abbey status in 1947 and autonomous priory status in 1984, the monastery had become what the community's prior, 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 set up an agricultural cooperative with the villagers, cultivating 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 unavoidable stops on any pilgrimage. Recently reopened to the public, it has undergone restoration work, and it is now possible to reside there in return for a donation to the monastery. People of all faiths are welcome for a spiritual retreat or a period of quiet relaxation.

Visit the premises. Since September 2016, the monastery has been entrusted by the Catholic Church in Algeria to the Chemin-Neuf Community. To visit the premises, you can make an appointment by calling +213 6 96 23 10 22. Visits are always accompanied by a guide (a brother or sister from the community).

For security reasons, foreign visitors are asked to bring their passport and visa, and 2 photocopies showing the names of their parents.

Testament of Christian de Chergé, Algiers, December¹ 1993, Tibhirine, January¹ 1994

"If one day - and it could be today - I fall victim to the terrorism that now seems 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 is no stranger to this sudden departure. Let them pray for me: how could I be found worthy of such an offering? May they know how to associate this death with so many others, so violent, so indifferent to anonymity. My life is no more precious than any other - nor is it any less so. In any case, it does not have the innocence of childhood. I have lived long enough to know that I am complicit in the evil that seems, alas, to prevail in the world, and even in the evil that would strike me blindly. When the time comes, I'd like to have that moment of lucidity that would enable me to ask God's forgiveness and that of my brothers in humanity, and at the same time to forgive wholeheartedly those who have wronged me. I could not wish for such a death. Indeed, I don't see how I could rejoice if the people I love were indiscriminately accused of my murder. To owe it to an Algerian, whoever he may be, especially if he claims to be acting in fidelity to what he believes to be Islam, is to pay too high a price for what may be called the "grace of martyrdom". [...] For me, Algeria and Islam are something else, they're a body and a soul. I've proclaimed this often enough, I believe, in the light of what I've received from it, so often finding in it the straight thread of the Gospel I learned at my mother's knee, my very first Church. Precisely in Algeria, and already with respect for Muslim believers. My death, of course, will seem to vindicate those who were quick to call me naive or idealistic: "Let him now say what he thinks! "But they must know that my most nagging curiosity will finally be set free. 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 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 re-establish likeness by playing with differences. This lost life, totally mine and totally theirs, I give thanks to God, who seems to have wanted it entirely for this joy, in spite of everything. In this thanksgiving where all is said, from now on in my life I include you of course, friends of yesterday and today, and you, oh my friends here alongside my mother and father, my sisters and brothers and theirs, a hundredfold granted as promised! And you too, the last-minute friend, who didn't know what you were doing. Yes, for you too I want this thank you, and this "To God" envisioned of you. And may we meet again as happy thieves, in paradise if it pleases God, our Father. Amen! Inch'Allah!"

If you want to know more, don't hesitate to discover or rediscover Xavier Beauvois'superb film Des hommes et des dieux. Awarded a prize at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, the film traces the last three years of the Tibhirine monks' lives.

Good to know: The monastery receives no subsidies and lives solely on the income from its small-scale agricultural production. So you can also buy products from the small store on site (jams, honey...).