Tawadros II
Head of the Coptic Orthodox Church since November 2012. In February 2015 he included the twenty-one men killed in Libya in his church’s Synaxarium, and in 2023 he consented to their entry in the Roman Martyrology.
A diocese of his church gives these dates: he was born at Mansoura in Egypt on 4 November 1952, took a degree in pharmacy in 1975, entered the Monastery of Saint Pishoy, was ordained priest in 1989 and consecrated a general bishop by Shenouda III in 1997, and took office as the 118th Pope of Alexandria on 18 November 2012 (Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles, His Holiness Pope Tawadros II). Benedict XVI congratulated him on his election in a message of 5 November 2012 (Benedict XVI, Message to Pope-Elect Tawadros (5 November 2012), (5 November 2012)).
On 21 February 2015 he announced the inclusion of the twenty-one men killed in Libya in the Synaxarium of the Coptic Orthodox Church (Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles, The New Martyrs of Libya added to the Coptic Synaxarium (21 February 2015)). He first visited Francis on 10 May 2013; on 11 May 2023 he came again, gave him a relic of the twenty-one, and consented to their inclusion in the Roman Martyrology (Francis, Address to Tawadros II (11 May 2023), opening paragraphs and paragraph beginning ‘In this journey of friendship’). See the Twenty-One Martyrs of Libya. This entry states only what the cited documents say.
In the timeline
- 15 February 2015, firm dateThe Twenty-One Martyrs of Libya
In February 2015 twenty-one Christian workers, twenty Egyptian Copts and one man from Ghana, are beheaded on the coast of Libya. The Coptic Orthodox Church enters them in its Synaxarium within a week, and in 2023 Pope Francis announces their inclusion in the Roman Martyrology.