By: Sarah Iskander
On February 15, 2015, twenty-one Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Christian laborers dressed in orange jumpsuits were forced to kneel on a Libyan beach before them the Mediterranean Sea and beyond that Western Europe. Behind each of these men was an ISIS terrorist dressed completely in black their faces and identity hidden behind a mask. Each one of these terrorists were going to kill them if they did not deny Jesus.
It was at this moment that an amazing display of bravery by those kneeling was made for the world to witness.
Each one of these men were given an opportunity to recant their faith and to deny Christ and in return their lives would be spared. They did not recant their faith. Instead, they simply prayed to God and were slaughtered like lambs, each one in turn. Each kneeling man was fully aware of what had just happened to the man kneeling next to him.
Pope Francis has recognized these Egyptian men as modern-day martyrs and declared February 15 as a day of solidarity between the Catholic and Coptic Orthodox churches and a “Day of Contemporary Martyrs.”
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