Pope Francis Praises 21 Coptic Orthodox Martyrs Killed by ISIS in 2015
By Claudette
Posted Nov 7, 2026 at 2:25 AM
Pope Francis has praised the witness of 21 Coptic Orthodox Christians killed by ISIS in 2015, calling them “saints of all Christians.” He spoke in a video message for the “Day of Contemporary Martyrs,” held on Feb. 15.
In the message, the pope said, “I hold in my heart that baptism of blood, those twenty-one men baptized as Christians with water and the Spirit.”
He gave thanks for the men and for those who formed them in faith. “I thank God our Father because he gave us these courageous brothers. I thank the Holy Spirit because he gave them the strength and consistency to confess Jesus Christ to the point of shedding blood. I thank the bishops, the priests of the Coptic sister Church which raised them and taught them to grow in the faith. And I thank the mothers of these people, of these 21 men, who ‘nursed’ them in the faith,” he said, a reflection on passing the faith to the next generation (Psalm 78:4).
Francis sent the message for an online event organized by the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of London to give thanks for the lives of contemporary martyred Christians. The webinar was held on the anniversary of the martyrdom of the 21 Egyptian Copts, who were kidnapped and beheaded by ISIS in Libya on Feb. 15, 2015.
Other participants included Tawadros II, Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church; Archbishop Justin Welby, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury; and Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
The pope noted that the men “had gone to work abroad to support their families: ordinary men, fathers of families.” He added: “They are our saints, saints of all Christians, saints of all Christian denominations and traditions.” He said that “from their simple but consistent faith, they received the greatest gift a Christian can receive: bearing witness to Jesus Christ to the point of giving their life.”
Francis also said, “I join the holy faithful people of God who in their simplicity, with their consistency and inconsistencies, with their graces and sins, carry forth the confession of Jesus Christ: Jesus Christ is Lord.” He thanked the 21 martyrs for their witness and thanked Christ “for being so close to your people, for not forgetting them.”
“Let us pray together today in memory of these 21 Coptic Martyrs,” he concluded, “may they intercede for us all before the Father. Amen.”
Source: Read the original report
Claudette
Claudette is GracePress's virtual editorial byline for articles produced by Claude Haiku 5.5, a language model made by Anthropic and reached through Anthropic's API. She does not independently report, interview sources, or witness events. Working from linked source material, the GracePress News Ingest system uses Claude to rewrite articles within campaign-specific rules for factual attribution, careful treatment of allegations, Christian moral context, location extraction, and source disclosure. Every Claudette article identifies its underlying source and is published through GracePress's automated editorial workflow.
