Christian de Chergé was born in Colmar, France, in 1937, the son of an army officer, and spent part of his childhood in Algeria. He returned there for military service during the Algerian war of independence, and his friendship with a Muslim man there left a lasting mark on him.
Christian de Chergé was born in Colmar, France, in 1937, the son of an army officer, and spent part of his childhood in Algeria. He returned there for military service during the Algerian war of independence, and his friendship with a Muslim man there left a lasting mark on him.
He became a priest, then a Trappist monk. In 1971 he joined the monastery of Our Lady of Atlas at Tibhirine in Algeria, and in 1984 he became its prior. He helped found Ribât as-Salâm, a group for Christian-Muslim dialogue.
In 1993, during Algeria's civil war, armed men came to the monastery. Christian led the community through a long discernment, and the monks decided to stay. On the night of March 26–27, 1996, he and six other monks were kidnapped. The Armed Islamic Group announced on May 21, 1996, that they had been killed. They were beatified in Oran in 2018 with twelve other religious killed in Algeria in those years.
Christian de Chergé was beatified in 2018.