Tibhirine, Notre-Dame de l'Atlas
A living monastery and the graves of seven Trappist martyrs, where pilgrims, most of them Algerian, are received.
- Location
- Medea, Algeria
- 36.2167° N · 2.7833° E
- Type
- Living monastery and the graves of seven martyrs
- A modest monastery, church, garden and cemetery in the Atlas above Medea
- Monastic Tradition
- Cistercian monastery of the Strict Observance, now kept by the Chemin Neuf Community
- The house of the seven Trappist martyrs of Algeria; the Cistercian community of Notre-Dame de l'Atlas itself continues in Morocco, at Midelt
Not a memorial. A house of prayer with graves in the garden.
Tibhirine is widely known through a film, and the film is not wrong, but it can leave the impression of a place that ended in 1996. It did not. A Catholic community lives here, prays here, works the garden, and welcomes visitors. Most of the pilgrims who come are Algerian Muslims. Come to pray at the seven steles, and to meet what is here now rather than only what was lost.
The decision to stay
The monks of Notre-Dame de l'Atlas were a small Cistercian community beside a Muslim village in the Atlas. As the violence of the 1990s spread they were told repeatedly to leave, and they decided, after long deliberation and not without fear, to stay. Seven of them were taken in the night; their deaths were announced by the Armed Islamic Group and their bodies were never recovered. Christian de Cherge, the prior, had already written what he wanted said: that his life was given to God and to this country, and he wrote of the man who would kill him with a charity that is difficult to read and harder to imitate. Their vocation was monastic, Marian and Eucharistic; the friendship with their neighbours followed from it rather than replacing it. Two survived, and carried Notre-Dame de l'Atlas to Morocco, where it continues at Midelt.
The seven were abducted on the night of March 26-27, 1996, during Algeria's Black Decade.
Brother Luc ran the dispensary at the monastery gate and treated the local people. Brother Michel was the cook and gardener; Brother Celestin the cantor.
Christian de Cherge left a testamentary letter, found by his brother the day after the deaths were announced.
They were beatified on December 8, 2018 by Pope Francis, together with Bishop Pierre Claverie of Oran and eleven other martyrs, at Notre-Dame de Santa Cruz in Oran.
Father Jean-Marie Lassausse of the Mission de France preserved the site from 2001, keeping the orchard and garden with Samir and Youssef, friends of Brother Christophe.
In 2016 the Archbishop of Algiers entrusted the site to the Chemin Neuf Community, which lives here now. 2026 marks thirty years since the deaths and ten years of that community on the site.
My life was given to God and to this country. Christian de Cherge wrote that before he knew how it would end, and left it to be read afterwards.
Silence, peace and fraternity are the words the community uses for what is here. The seven steles stand in the garden. There is no tomb to venerate because there are no remains. What there is instead is the ground they refused to leave, and a community still praying on it.
- That the community here today is Chemin Neuf, not Cistercian, and that the Cistercian community continues in Morocco
- That most pilgrims who come are Algerian
- That the monks' vocation was monastic, Marian and Eucharistic before it was anything else
- That the Church in Algeria refuses to let the killers stand for the people the monks loved
Do Not Miss
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01
The seven steles
In the garden. Graves without remains. Pray, and let that fact stand.
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02
Christian de Cherge's testament
Read it before coming, not after. It is short.
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03
The garden
Still worked, with the help of friends of Brother Christophe. The continuity is not symbolic.
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04
Midelt, in Morocco
Notre-Dame de l'Atlas itself continues there. Tibhirine is one chapter of a vocation, not its end.
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- Midelt, in Morocco Notre-Dame de l'Atlas itself continues there. Tibhirine is one chapter of a vocation, not its end.
How to Visit
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The prayer of the Chemin Neuf community living on the site
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Prayer at the seven steles in the monastery garden
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Silence, which visitors and the community alike describe as the character of the place
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Intercession for Algeria and for the friendship the monks kept with their neighbours
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- Intercession for Algeria and for the friendship the monks kept with their neighbours
Write ahead. This is a community's home.
The Chemin Neuf Community lives on the site and receives pilgrims. Arrangements should be made in advance. The monastery is about 90 km south of Algiers near Medea; Algeria requires a visa for most travellers and the Catholic Church in the country is small. Approach through the Archdiocese of Algiers.
- Who is here
- The Chemin Neuf Community, on the site since 2016
- What to pray at
- Seven steles in the monastery garden; the bodies were never found
- Getting there
- About 90 km south of Algiers, in the hills near Medea
- Before you go
- Contact the community in advance; Algeria requires a visa for most travellers
Current access
People live and pray here every day. A visit fits into their hours rather than the other way round, and that is settled beforehand, not at the gate.
Prayer and custody
The seven are the reason most people come, and they are not the whole of what is here. Give as much attention to the community praying now as to the graves.
Tombs, Relics, and Devotional Focus
Tomb and Burial
- The bodies of the seven monks were never found. A small cemetery with seven steles stands in the garden near the monastery. This is a place of graves without remains, and should be described that way.
Relics and Sacred Tradition
- No relic shrine is published. What the monastery holds is the ground, the seven steles, and the memory of the community that lived here.
Sacred Objects
- The seven steles in the monastery garden
- The monastery church
- The orchard and vegetable garden, still worked
Saints and Founders
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Blessed Christian de Cherge and the Martyrs of Tibhirine Their monastery Christian de Cherge, prior, with Brothers Luc, Christophe, Michel, Bruno, Celestin and Paul, were abducted from this monastery on the night of March 26-27, 1996 and killed. They were beatified on December 8, 2018 with twelve other martyrs of Algeria.
One vocation, two countries
Map
Hero image and the photograph of the cemetery both sourced from Wikimedia Commons (Ps2613, CC BY-SA 3.0). 'Bodies were never found' and the seven steles follow Vatican News (March 2026) exactly; methods of death are deliberately not described. The nineteen martyrs of Algeria, beatified together in 2018, are named here but not treated individually.
September 17, 2026
Photo credits
- Hero. Ps2613, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY-SA 3.0.
- The graves in the garden. Ps2613, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY-SA 3.0.