Marin Mosebach's The 21: A Journey into the Land of Coptic Martyrs is a compelling modern hagiography of the contemporary lives of Coptic Christians. After watching a video of the 2015 beheading of 21 Coptic men in Libya
by ISIS, Mosebach decided to travel to Egypt, where the victims were
from. He visited the men's families and homes as well as holy sites to
unravel how these men could so peacefully accept death. He gives the
Copts personalities (in the way that classic hagiography has always done) and explains why they
exposed themselves to the dangers of Libya in order to find work in the
oil sector there.His account of the lives of these 21 men, as well as the Coptic Christians' memorialization of them as "saints", provides some of the most compelling accounts of Eastern Christianity for those outside the Middle East.
The 21 ends with a reflection on the nature of martyrology in the Christian faith that really cannot be ignored -- particularly for the minority Christians in the Muslim world.
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I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review here.