Internationally Respected Monk Murdered in Church After Life Devoted to Unity

An internationally renowned Swiss-born apostle of Church Unity, Brother Roger, 90, has been murdered in front of his own congregation of 2,500 young people in Taizé, Burgundy. A 36-year-old Romanian woman stabbed Brother Roger to death as he gave his last prayer at the three daily services at the ecumenical community he founded in 1940.

Young people who had travelled from all over the world to make the pilgrimage to Taizé watched the frail monk being stabbed three times in the throat by the woman, reportedly named Luminita. Brother Roger died 15 minutes later in the Church of Reconciliation.

The woman said she had not meant to kill the monk but wanted to “catch the attention” of Brother Roger.

Members of the Taizé community reported that she had seemed psychologically disturbed as she lived in the community off and all throughout summer but had not seemed as a dangerous threat.

Tributes to the Lutheran Brother Roger were led yesterday by Christian leaders all over the world.

Pope Benedict said that his murder is a “sad and terrifying” attack on a man dedicated to peace and healing the divisions of humanity.

”This is an indescribable shock. Brother Roger was one of the best-loved Christian leaders of our time and hundreds of thousands will be feeling his loss very personally, and remembering him in prayer and gratitude,” said the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams.

Roger Louis Schutz-Marsauche was born in a village in the Swiss Jura in 1915 as the son of a Swiss Lutheran minister and a French mother. After France was defeated by Nazi Germany in 1940, he entered the land on foot, with the intention to establish a religious community dedicated to peace and healing the divisions in the Church. He settled in southern Burgundy, in a tiny village after he was offered some food by an elderly local woman there.

Brother Roger had sheltered Jewish and other refugees from the Nazis during the war and offered hospitality to German prisoners after the war.

Since then, the Taizé community has grown to have 100 monks from almost all Christian denominations in 30 different countries.

In the years, the villages has become a place of pilgrimage particularly for young Christians from all over the world. The simple “Taizé music” – chants and songs developed by Brother Roger along with the help of French musician Jacques Berthier – have helped the fame of the village spread.

The entrance to the Church of Reconciliation in Taizé has a sign in many languages, which reads: "Let all who enter here be reconciled, brother with brother, sister with sister, nation with nation."

"She said she wanted to attract his attention but not to kill him," said M. Coste. "She said she wanted to speak to Brother Roger but could not because of the crowds ... which seems like a somewhat unsatisfactory explanation. There is clearly a psychiatric problem but she seems outwardly sane. We have asked for further examinations."

“She [the woman] was here for several days in June,” said Brother Maxime who was at the press conference. “A brother who spoke to her realised that she had psychiatric problems but said that she was absolutely not aggressive ... She wanted to join the community.”