Beheaded men made martyrs of Coptic Church

The Coptic Orthodox Church is to commemorate in its calendar of saints the 21 Egyptian Christian labourers beheaded in Libya ­earlier this month, writes Abigail Frymann Rouch.

Coptic leader Pope Tawadros II announced that the names of the 21 men murdered by Islamic State jihadists will be entered in the Synaxarium, the Coptic equivalent of the Roman Martyrology – a procedure akin to canonisation in the Latin Church.

According to the website ­terrasanta.net, the martyrdom of the 21 Copts will be commemorated on 8th Amshir of the Coptic calendar, 15 February in the Gregorian calendar – the day on which footage of the killings was made public.

The Coptic Catholic Bishop of Giza, Bishop Antonios Mina, said: “The name of Jesus is the last word that escaped their lips ... That name whispered at the last second of life is like a seal on their martyrdom.”