A monastic school of peace in post-colonial algeria: Christophe Lebreton's Tibhirine journal

Christophe Lebreton was the youngest of seven Cistercian monks kidnapped and executed by Islamic terrorists in Algeria in 1996. His prayer journal (1993–1996) offers a window into the Tibhirine monks’ response to the escalating violence in Algeria, and a privileged insight into Brother Christophe’s commitment to the monastery as “a school of peace.” He understands the relationship between the violence in human hearts and the violence in the world, the relationship between “peace within” and “peace without.” Drawing on his published journal, this paper examines Christophe’s understanding of peace, and the monastic commitments and practices that underpin its growth.