But whatever gain the terrorists imagined was short-lived.  The Prior, Father Christian de Chergé, had left a document, a Testament to be read in such an eventuality.  It was addressed to the Church, the Order, his family, his neighbors, and his murderers, but it also was published in the newspapers of Algeria and France, with  unforeseen results : men who had been terrorists lost confidence in their cause; many of them turned in their weapons.  The martyrdom of the monks of Tibhirine is credited with dealing a major blow to terrorism in Algeria.

          For those familiar with the writings of Charles de Foucauld there is a thrilling footnote.  Prior Christian de Chergé evidently was well-read in Brother Charles' writings.  Years before, while preparing to take his final vows, de Chergé had made a pilgrimage to Charles' sites in the Assekrem Mountains in southern Algeria, and stayed two months at Tamanrasset.   Brother Charles' spirituality glows throughout the Testament of Christian de Chergé.

          In  Meditation on Psalm 1  Brother Charles berates himself, seeing no good come from his work.  Then, in hope, he reminds himself that God would say to him, "You will be a tree with leaves ever green...you will bear fruit in its time."

          It was time in Tibhirine.

          If the day comes, and it could be today, that I am a victim of the terrorism that seems to be engulfing all foreigners living in Algeria, I would like my community, my Church, and my family to remember that I have dedicated my life to God and Algeria.

          That they accept that the Lord of all life was not a stranger to this savage kind of departure; that they may pray for me, wondering how I found myself worthy of such a sacrifice; that they link in their memory this death of mine with all the other deaths equally violent but forgotten in their anonymity.

          My life is not worth more than any other -- not less, not more.  Nor am I an innocent child.  I have lived long enough to know that I, too, am an accomplice of the evil that seems to prevail in the world around, even that which might lash out blindly at me.  If the moment comes, I would hope to have the presence of mind, and the time, for ask for God's pardon and for that of my fellowman, and, at the same time, to pardon in all sincerity him who would attack me.

          I would not welcome such a death.  It is important for me to say this.  I do not see how I could rejoice when this people whom I love will be accused, indiscriminately, of my death.  The price is too high, this so-called grace of the martyr, if I owe it to an Algerian who kills me in the name of what he thinks is Islam.

          I know the contempt that some people have for Algerians as a whole.  I also know the caricatures of Islam that a certain (Islamist) ideology promotes.  It is too easy for such people to dismiss, in good conscience, this religion as something hateful by associating it with violent extremists.  For me, Algerian and Islam are quite different from the commonly held opinion.  They are body and soul.  I have said enough, I believe, about all the good things I have received here, finding so often the meaning of the Gospels running like some gold thread through my life, and which began first at my mother's knee, my very first church, here in Algeria, where I learned respect for the Muslims.

          Obviously, my death will justify the opinion of all those who dismissed me as naive or idealistic" "Let him tell us what he thinks now."  But such people should know my death will satisfy my most burning curiosity.  At last, I will be able --  if God pleases  --  to see the children of Islam as he sees them, illuminated in the glory of Christ, sharing in the gift of God's Passion and of the Spirit, whose secret joy will always be to bring forth our common humanity amidst our differences.

          I give thanks to God for this life, completely mine yet completely theirs, too, to God, who  wanted it for joy against, and in spite of all odds.  In this  Thank You  --  which says everything about my life  --  I include you, my friends past and present, and those friends who will be here at the side of my mother and father, of my sisters and brothers  --  thank you a thousandfold.

          And to you, too, my friend of the last moment, who will not know what you are doing.  Yes, for you, too, I wish this thank-you, this "A-Dieu," whose image is in you also, that we may meet in heaven, like happy thieves, if it pleases God, our common Father.  Amen!  Insha Allah!
 
 

The above transcript of the Testament of Christian de Chergé  is from