The families of the 21 Egyptian Christians who were brutally murdered by their Islamic State captors last February said their initial grief and anger have been replaced by pride and joy, knowing that their loved ones stood firm in their faith and did not deny Jesus just before they were beheaded.
The pictures of the martyrs are now prominently displayed in the sanctuary of Virgin Mary Church in the village of Al Aour, 150 miles south of Cairo, CBN reported.
The families who gathered in the church said they were comforted after watching the video of the execution produced by the ISIS jihadists themselves. The video showed the martyrs crying out to Jesus Christ to have mercy on them in affirmation of their strong Christian faith just moments before they were executed.
Mariam Farhat, who became a widow at 23 after militants beheaded her husband Malak Ibrahim in Libya, said she "was very proud" that her husband "stood firm in his faith and that he didn't deny Jesus."
She learned about her husband's death when she saw the video of the brutal execution on local television.
"We were very sad for the first two days, but we hadn't seen the video," she recalled. "When we saw them in the video calling to Jesus we were very comforted."
Bebawy Al Ham, whose brother Samuel was among those killed, said, "We were very happy with what they said on the video: 'Jesus Christ have mercy on us.' When we found out they had been killed for being Christian, we were very comforted, because these were God's children and he took them."
"We were always praying that God would make them steadfast in their faith," Bebawy added.
Although Samuel's wife and children were deprived of her husband and their father, respectively, when the ISIS took his life, the members of his family said they had forgiven the jihadists and that they actually prayed for them.
"I pray for them that God may open their hearts, and they may know the truth and know that what they do is wrong and then do the right thing," Bebawy said.
"Jesus told us to forgive every sin and we forgive them, and we hope that they can come to know Jesus," he said.
