"Shrines of Al-Our village in Minya”
Belongings Without Bodies
2017
In late 2014 and early 2015, ISIS in Libya kidnapped 21 Egyptian Coptic men in the city of Sirte. Most of them came from the village of Al-Our in Minya governorate and a nearby village in the south of Egypt, Two months later, ISIS released a five-minute video showing their beheading—one of the most harrowing attacks against Copts in recent history, amplified by its broadcast on social media.
In Christianity, martyrdom is the ultimate act of sacrifice, giving one’s life for faith in Christ. Since the third century, during the era of Emperor Diocletian (known as the "Era of Martyrs"), Christians have honored martyrs as saints and symbols of steadfast belief.
For the families of these men, the tragedy was compounded by the absence of their bodies. With no graves to visit, they created shrines in their homes: small wooden cabinets or entire rooms filled with photographs, candles, crosses, and relics brought back from Libya. These shrines became spaces of prayer and remembrance, places where both families and neighbors could honor the martyrs.
The Church recognized them all as martyrs, as they had refused to renounce their faith. Meanwhile, the state promised to build a Church of the Martyrs in the village to hold their remains once recovered. Eventually, after years of waiting, their bodies were found and returned from Libya.
"The Shrine" thus stands as a testament to grief, faith, and remembrance, a space where absence is transformed into presence, and memory into resilience.
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We were the first family to think of creating a shrine at a carpenter’s in Samalut, and afterwards the other families adopted the idea.”
Mina’s brother
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“We’ve always heard about martyrdom in the church, but this is the first time we’ve seen it with our own eyes. Is it easy to watch your own child being slaughtered and then continue life as if nothing happened?”
Bushra, a father to one of the martyrs
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“Whenever I miss him, I enter the shrine and sit with him. Even before the shrine was built, he never left me"
Mariam, the husband of one of the Martyrs
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“Yes, I grieved and questioned God, asking Him: why, God, did You do this to us? What wrong had we done? But afterwards, I thanked Him for answering our prayers and for keeping them steadfast in their faith.”
Bashir’s mother
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“I am not wearing black out of grief, because grief is in the heart, not in the clothes, but because women are expected to wear black. Yet my son Kyrillos told me: promise me, mother, when the martyrs’ bodies return, you will never wear black again. So I told him, if Mina comes back, I will wear white.”
Mina’s mother
