The week of February 15 is being remembered as the first anniversary of beheading of 21 Coptic Christians, who were marched on the beach and decapitated by Islamic State militants.
The video of the beheadings was then circulated on the internet in a threatening message to the "nation of the cross," where the ISIS militants dressed in black were standing behind the Christians in orange jumpsuits.
The Copts from Egypt had gone to Libya to work as construction workers, and were kidnapped separately between December 2014 and January 2015. Christian experts who studied the video said the martyrs cried out together "Ya Rabbi Yasou" (which is translated as "O My Lord Jesus") before the knives touched their necks.
The video was titled "A Message Signed with Blood to the Nation of the Cross." And a caption read in Arabic, "These insisted to remain in unbelief as they did not accept Islam", according to BosNewsLife.
The Coptic Orthodox Church in Samalot, from where most of the slain belonged, celebrated Divine Liturgy in masses and prayer meetings to honor them. Priests of the church dedicated the services to the 21 Christians, and recorded them in liturgy to be remembered as "martyrs of Libya," as they were killed for their faith.
The Copts were officially registered by Patriarch Tawadros II in the Synaxarium, which chronicles the martyrs of the Coptic Church, and will celebrate February 15 as a day of remembrance every year.
"We remember them, we remember what happened to them, and we will forgive because we belong to God. I also hope that it is sending a message that we stand together," he was quoted as saying by Independent Catholic News.
Coptic Catholic Bishop Anba Antonios Aziz Mina said that the 21 martyrs displayed the passion of the early Christians when they "entrusted themselves to Him who would receive them shortly thereafter. And so this is a celebration of their victory, a victory that no perpetrator can take from them."
