Jean-Pierre Schumacher, French Trappist monk and survivor of the Thibirine monks (born 1924)
Jean-Pierre Schumacher
Jean-Pierre Schumacher was a French Trappist monk and prior. He was one of the two survivors of the Trappist community of Tibhirine.
Trappists
The Trappists, officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance and originally named the Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe, are a Catholic religious order of cloistered monastics that branched off from the Cistercians. They follow the Rule of Saint Benedict and have communities of both monks and nuns that are known as Trappists and Trappistines, respectively. They are named after La Trappe Abbey, the monastery from which the movement and religious order originated. The movement began with the reforms that Abbot Armand Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé introduced in 1664, later leading to the creation of Trappist congregations, and eventually the formal constitution as a separate religious order in 1892.
Murder of the monks of Tibhirine
On the night of 26–27 March 1996, seven monks of the Trappist order from the Our Lady of the Atlas Abbey of Tibhirine near Médéa, Algeria, were kidnapped during the Algerian Civil War. They were held for two months, and found dead in late May 1996. The circumstances of their kidnapping and death remain controversial; the Armed Islamic Group claimed responsibility for both, but in 2009, retired General François Buchwalter reported that the monks were killed by the Algerian army.
November 21
November 21 is the 325th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 40 days remain until the end of the year.