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Coptic Martyrs Museum Commemorating the Deaths of ISIS Victims in Libya Opens in Minya

The museum's inauguration comes exactly five years after the tragic mass execution that shocked Egypt.

Staff Writer

Last Saturday, February 15th, Bishop Bevnotious of Samalout inaugurated a museum in remembrance of the 21 Christian martyrs - 20 Copts and one Ghanaian -  who were killed by ISIS in Libya for refusing to denounce their faith, an event which sent shockwaves throughout Egypt when a video recording of the mass execution was released exactly five years ago on February 15th, 2015.

The museum is set in the Church of the Martyrs of Faith and Homeland, which opened on February 15th, 2018 and was named in honour of the victims. The church was fully funded by the Egyptian government and was built in Al-Aour village in the Minya governate, which 13 of the martyrs had called home.

A memorial dedicated to the martyrs was also unveiled, made up of a 4-metre tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms open to the statues of the 21 victims kneeling before him. The museum itself will include a documentary panorama detailing their kidnapping and execution, and a shrine with the remains of the martyrs and the coffins that had carried them there from Libya.