How Far to Follow: The Martyrs of Atlas

by Bernardo Olivera

Overview

The Abbot General of the Trappist Order (Cistercians of the Strict Observance) reflects on the martyrdom in 1996 of seven of his monks, kidnapped from the Algerian monastery of Our Lady of alas and executed by a radical faction of the Groupe Islamique Arma. Choosing, despite known danger, to remain in the adopted homeland he loved, one of the martyred monks had earlier written: I am also aware of the caricature of Islam which a certain Islamism encourages. It is too easy to salve one's conscience by identifying this religious way with the fundamentalist ideologies of its extremists. For me, Algeria and Islam are something different—they are a body and a soul. I have proclaimed this often enough, I believe, in the sure knowledge of what I have received from it, finding there so often that true strand of the Gospel learned at my mother's knee, my very first Church, in Algeria itself, and already inspired with respect for Muslim believers. Originally published by St Bede's Publications. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780879076979
Publisher:	Cistercian Publications
Publication date:	11/01/2001
Series:	Cistercian Studies , #197
Pages:	136
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Bernardo Olivera, OCSO, is abbot of Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles in Azul, Argentina. He served as Abbot General of the Cistercians of the Strict Observance from 1990 to 2008. Dom Bernardo is author of How Far to Follow? The Martyrs of Atlas (Cistercian Publications), as well as many books published in South America.

Table of Contents

Contents
Preface   5
CHAPTER I   The Initial Facts   15
   1.  Stability until Death   16
   2.  Martyrs of love and faith   21
CHAPTER II   Algiers and Tibhirine   27
   1.  Algiers   28
   2.  Burial   42
CHAPTER III   Their Story and Ours   49
   1.  The Background   40
   2.  An Unexpected Letter   52
   3.  Christmas Eve 1993   64
   4.  A Visit in Lent   76
   5.  Wisdom Comes from Memory   96
CHAPTER IV   Keeping their Memory Alive   105
   1.  Death and Life   106
   2.  A revelation to the Youngest   110
   3.  Too Big a Heritage   121
CHAPTER V   Messages Received   125
   1.  Letter from the Secretariat of State   125
   2.  Testament of Father Christian   127
   3.  Message of John Paul II   130