mohmed-bouchikhi-and-blessed-pierre-claverie

Mohamed Bouchikhi and Bl. Pierre Claverie

Born: 1975 (Bouchikhi) and 1938 (Claverie)

Died: August 1, 1996

Feast day: August 1

Bouchikhi was born in 1975 in Algeria. He grew up next to the church’s presbytery in Oran. He befriended the priests and sisters and helped them with their work. When old enough, he ran errands in the church’s white Peugeot sedan and became the driver of his friend, Blessed Pierre Claverie, the bishop of Oran.

On the night of August 1, 1996, Bouchikhi picked up Claverie at the airport. City lights flashing by cut the late-night darkness outside the white Peugeot. Upon arriving home, a bomb went off, killing them both.

Later Bouchikhi’s diary was found. The final entry read: “Forgive me for any time that an evil word has passed my lips, and I ask all of my friends to forgive me on account of my youth. Yet, on this day on which I am writing to you, I remember the good that I have done in my life. May God, in all of his power, help me to surrender to him, and grant me his tenderness.”

On December 8, 2018 Claverie and 18 others were beatified in Oran, in part to honor them in the context of the tens of thousands of Muslims who were killed as well. As a Muslim, Bouchikhi was not beatified, but he was honored in the official icon.

—Damian Costello