Minya, Egypt, Feb 13, 2018 / 16:01 pm
The Coptic Orthodox Church will dedicate on Thursday a new church to the 21 Martyrs of Libya, who were beheaded by the Islamic State, three years after their deaths.
The church will be opened Feb. 15, according to Fides News Agency. It is located in the village of al-Our in Egypt's Minya Governorate. The village was home to 13 of the martyred men.
"Any way that the Church of today can honor her martyrs is a blessing. The story of these 21 brave men is worth telling. In way too many places Christians are under siege from the dark forces of extreme hatred, and their freedom is conditioned by this hatred," Bishop Gregory Mansour of the Maronite Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn told CNA.
The church may someday house the 21 martyrs' remains, which were identified in a mass grave on the Libyan coast in September.
The Coptic Orthodox Church recognized the 21 Coptic Christians as martyrs to be commemorated every Feb. 15 within only a week of their murder in 2015 along the Libyan coast, which was filmed by the Islamic State and released in an internet video.