“Catholic Saints”: The Coptic Martyrs of 2015

February 15, 2024 marks the first public liturgical commemoration of the 21 Coptic Martyrs of Egypt in the Roman Catholic Church since their insertion into the official Roman Martyrology last year by Pope Francis. This is the ninth anniversary of their being brutally beheaded on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea by ISIS Islamist Terrorists for refusing to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ. 

Who can forget how ISIS recorded this murderous act and posted the video to YouTube and distributed it to media outlets all over the world? Many of us saw at least parts of this video, where flesh-and-blood men—ordinary Coptic Orthodox Christian working men doing migrant work in Libya—repeated the name of Jesus as a prayer during the last seconds of their lives. In this world of global interactive media, what was meant to be a propaganda video instead allowed millions of people to see the faces of their fellow human beings giving their lives for their faith. It was terrifying in many ways, yet the truth being lived before our eyes was compelling and convincing. 

Twenty of the martyrs were Egyptian, but one was from Ghana (listed here as unidentified "worker" but I'll revise it when I find his name). He was not baptized Christian, but had been arrested with the others. When commanded to convert to the ideology of his violent Islamist oppressors, he pointed instead to his brother workers and said, "their God is my God." Thus dying for his faith in Jesus Christ, he obtained what the ancient Christian tradition called "the baptism of blood."

These martyrs were members of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt, which has not been in full communion with the Catholic Church since the year 451, but which has retained valid apostolic succession through the ("monophysite") Patriarch of Alexandria, and therefore has the sacraments, the Divine Liturgy, and the Eucharist. Last May, Pope Francis decided to recognize the holiness of these 21 martyrs of 2015 who were already being celebrated as saints in the Coptic Church. They are now officially honored as saints in the full sense of the term by the Catholic Church.

We should remember them and prayer for their intercession, especially for Christian Unity, which their sacrifice embodies as a "beginning" and stands as a sign for all who believe in Jesus and profess His name—the name they loved more than earthly life.

1. Saint Milad Makeen Zaky, pray for us.

2. Saint Abanub Ayad Atiya, pray for us.

3. Saint Maged Solaiman Shehata, pray for us.

4. Saint Yusuf Shukry Yunan, pray for us.

5. Saint Kirollos Shokry Fawzy, pray for us.

6. Saint Bishoy Astafanus Kamel, pray for us.

7. Saint Somaily Astafanus Kamel, pray for us.

8. Saint Malak Ibrahim Sinweet, pray for us.

9. Saint Tawadros Yusuf Tawadros, pray for us.

10. Saint Girgis Milad Sinweet, pray for us.

11. Saint Mina Fayez Aziz, pray for us.

12. Saint Hany Abdelmesih Salib, pray for us.

13. Saint Bishoy Adel Khalaf, pray for us.

14. Saint Samuel Alham Wilson, pray for us.

15. Saint [Worker from Awr village], pray for us.

16. Saint Ezat Bishri Naseef, pray for us.

17. Saint Loqa Nagaty, pray for us.

18. Saint Gaber Munir Adly, pray for us.

19. Saint Esam Badir Samir, pray for us.

20. Saint Malak Farag Abram, pray for us.

21. Saint Sameh Salah Faruq, pray for us.