Odette Prévost (17 July 1932 10 November 1995) was a French Roman Catholic nun, who was working as a teacher and a librarian when she was killed in

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

en route to Mass. She is recognized as a

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

and was proclaimed

blessed Blessed may refer to: * The state of having received a blessing * Blessed, a title assigned by the Roman Catholic Church to someone who has been beatified Film and television * ''Blessed'' (2004 film), a 2004 motion picture about a supernatural ...

on 8 December 2018.

Biography

Odette Prévost was born in Champagne in

Oger Oger may refer to: __NOTOC__ * Ogre, Latvia * Oger, Marne, France * Saudi Oger, a Saudi construction company People with the name Given name * Oger Klos (born 1993), Dutch professional footballer Surname * Thomas Oger (born 1980), Monegasque tenn ...

in the

Marne Marne can refer to: Places France *Marne (river), a tributary of the Seine *Marne (department), a département in northeastern France named after the river * La Marne, a commune in western France *Marne, a legislative constituency (France) Nethe ...

department of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

on 17 July 1932. She became a teacher and taught English for three years, at Avize. She asked herself the question of the religious vocation, and thought first of all about

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

life, but then decided to follow the footsteps of Charles de Foucauld. She joined the Little Sisters of the Sacred Heart at age 21, in 1953."Bienheureuse Odette Prévost", Nominis
/ref> For her first mission, Prévost was sent in 1958 to

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

, to Kbab, among the

Berbers , image = File:Berber_flag.svg , caption = The Berber ethnic flag , population = 36 million , region1 = Morocco , pop1 = 14 million to 18 million , region2 = Algeria , pop2 ...

. She served at the clinic, and gave girls knitting and sewing classes. She thus met the Muslims and their culture. Prévost made perpetual profession in 1959. She also met for a year Father Peyriguère, the famous French

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...

who lived alone nearby in the Moroccan

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...

, imitating Father de Foucauld. Recalled to France, where she worked among the

Argenteuil Argenteuil () is a Communes of France, commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, center of Paris. Argenteuil is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the Val-d'Oise Departments of France, ...

laborious and disadvantaged population, she wanted to move back to Algiers, where she arrived in 1968, in the district of Kouba. She participated in the founding of a community of Sisters, and lived in the same destitution as the local population. Desiring to better master language and culture, she moved to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in 1980 to study

classical Arabic Classical Arabic ( ar, links=no, ٱلْعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ, al-ʿarabīyah al-fuṣḥā) or Quranic Arabic is the standardized literary form of Arabic used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages, most notab ...

and Islamic sciences for two years. Returning to Algiers, she joined the Diocesan Cultural Center "Glycines", where she was alternately librarian and teacher of Arabic. She was also part of Ribat-el-Salam (Link of Peace) where she met the monks of Tibhirine. According to the Prioress General of her order, she was tall and intellectually gifted, but did not possess an easy temperament. She criticized the authorities and was rather often worried; but a few months before her death she had manifestly transformed herself, as another future martyr, the bishop of

Oran Oran ( ar, وَهران, Wahrān) is a major coastal city located in the north-west of Algeria. It is considered the second most important city of Algeria after the capital Algiers, due to its population and commercial, industrial, and cultural ...

Pierre Claverie Pierre-Lucien Claverie, OP (8 May 1938 – 1 August 1996) was a French Catholic prelate who was a professed member from the Order of Preachers and served as the Bishop of Oran from 1981 until his murder in 1996 by Islamic extremists. He was ...

, noticed : "because when you risk your own life, you have to go to the essential. " On 10 November 1995, at around 8:30 am, she went with another sister to attend mass when an Islamist

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

came out of a car and shot her at point blank range. Prévost died instantly, her friend was seriously injured in the jaw. She was recognized a martyr in January 2018 by

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

, then proclaimed blessed during the beatification ceremony on 8 December 2018 in Algeria, in

, with the group of martyrs of Algeria. It was the first beatification ceremony in a country with a Muslim majority.

Quote

Prayer composed by Prévost, found on her just after her death: "Live today’s day. God gives it to you, it belongs to you. Live it in God. Tomorrow’s day belongs to God, it doesn’t belong to you. Do not impose today’s worry upon tomorrow. Tomorrow belongs to God, hand it over to him. The present moment is a frail footbridge. If you weigh it down with yesterday’s regrets, Tomorrow’s anxiety, The footbridge gives way and you lose your footing. The past? God forgives it. The future? God gives it. Live today’s day in communion with God.

References

Bibliography

* Thomas Georgeon & Christophe Henning, ''Nos vies sont déjà données'', Bayard, 2018. {{DEFAULTSORT:Prevost Odette 20th-century French nuns Beatifications by Pope Francis French beatified people 1932 births 1995 deaths Venerated Catholics Victims of Islamic terrorism