AFRICA/EGYPT - Patriarch Tawadros meets the families of 21 martyrs; another Copt beheaded in Libya

Cairo (Agenzia Fides) - Coptic Orthodox Patriarch Tawadros II will meet today, Tuesday, March 3, the families of 21 Coptic Christians killed in Libya by terrorists linked to the Islamic State (Is). This is what official sources of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate say, consulted by Fides.
The meeting will be held in the village of Samalot, 25 kilometers from Minya, in the province where most of the victims came from. During the meeting, the Primate of the Coptic Church will give death certificates to the families of the victims, certifying their savage execution.
Yesterday, during a homily the Patriarch said that the martyrs of Libya "have enriched the Church with their blood", and with their martyrdom have confessed and testified faith in Christ before the world.
In past days, Pope Tawadros had already reiterated that the 21 Christians massacred in Libya will be celebrated as martyrs by the Coptic Church. Meanwhile in Libya an Egyptian Copt was beheaded, whose headless corpse was found on the outskirts of the town of Mechili, in Cyrenaica. The victim of the barbaric murder was called Mansour Saad Awad and worked in a poultry farm in the area. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 03/03/2015)