In March 1996, seven monks from the monastery of Our Lady of Atlas, near the village of Tibhirine in Algeria, were abducted by a radical faction of the Islamic fundamentalist GIA. The monastery had been founded in 1934 by monks from France and six of the seven monks who were killed had transferred to Tibhirine from monasteries in France. Under the leadership of the Prior, Dom Christian de Chergé community had decided to remain at the monastery despite the danger and risk of death. The monks were executed on 21 May 1996. Their funeral Mass was celebrated in the Cathedral of Algiers and they were buried in the cemetery of their monastery at Tibhirine. They were beatified together with 12 other Algerian martyrs in Oran on 8 December 2018.