On 12th February 2015, the Islamic State released a report stating that they had kidnapped 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians; migrant workers who were at that time working in the Libyan city of Sirte.
Exactly one year ago now on the 15th February 2015, ISIS released a video showing the beheading of the captives on a beach along the Southern Mediterranean coast. The video refers to the men as “people of the cross, followers of the hostile Egyptian Church.”
The video shows several of the captives praying even as the knives of their executioners are placed on their necks. The men were given the last minute option to convert or die, and each one of them refused.
A few days after the killing, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Tawadros II announced that the 21 murdered men would be canonised, and commemorated as martyr saints.
Source: http://myocn.net/coptic-martyrs-isis/
At first, when the church released the names of the men killed, the list consisted of only 20 names. It was later learned that the 21st martyr was named Mathew Ayairga and that he was from the African nation of Chad. He was originally a non-Christian, but he saw the immense faith of the other men, and when the terrorists asked him if he rejected Jesus, he reportedly said, “Their God is my God”, knowing that he too would be killed.
ISIS’s intention in this mass, ceremonial like execution was to make a clear and powerful statement, intimidating Christians in the Middle East and around the world. Yet the effect has been the exact opposite. What is remembered above all is strength and defiance of the Christian martyrs, and the unity that has been galvanised among Christians and other people of good will around the world.
To the 21 Christian martyrs, I pay my deep and profound respects.