After three years since they were beheaded on the Libyan coast in February 2015 by the Islamist extremist group ISIS, the bodies of the 21 Christians will be returned home to their families.
According to the persecution website World Watch Monitor, the families of the 21 Christians - 20 Egyptian Copts and one Ghanian Christian- requested for their return of their loved ones' remains to them after an initial plan was raised to bury them in a single coffin and enshrined at the Church of the Martyrs of Faith and Homeland in Al-Our, Egypt.
On Sunday, Fr. Maqar Issa, priest from the Virgin Mary Coptic Orthodox Church in Al-Our, and Samalout Diocese lawyer Attallah Youssef Hanna are set to complete the necessary paperwork to return the remains to their families on the families' behalf at the National Security Agency.
Last month, the Church of the Martyrs of Faith and Homeland was inaugurated in memory of these martyrs, whose bodies were located in October 2017 in the city of Sirte in Libya after the ISIS fighter who filmed their executions revealed their location after he was captured.
Coptic Pope Tawadros II announced that they were to be declared 'martyred saints' following the publishing of their beheading online under a title 'A message signed with blood to the nation of the cross.' Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi approved the request to build a church at al-Our to honor the dead.
