Murdered priest’s final words to ISIS attackers are revealed at his funeral as it emerges he was an ex soldier who fought in North Africa
Mourners gathered for the funeral of Father Jacques Hamel today heard of his galliant effort to fight off his attackers
THE defiant last words of the elderly French priest who had his throat slit by ISIS extremists were "go away Satan" - which he uttered to his attackers as he tried to push them away.
Reverend Jacques Hamel, 85, was killed while holding morning mass in his hometown in Normandy last Tuesday.
Jihadis Abdel Kermiche and accomplice Abdel-Malik Petitjean, both 19, took hostages before killing Father Hamel and gravely wounding another captive.
Today as his funeral was held at the sumptuous Rouen cathedral, the city's Archbishop Dominique Lebrun revealed his last words.
He told the hundreds in attendance: "Evil is a mystery. It reaches heights of horror that take us out of the human.
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"Isn't that what you wanted to say, Jacques, with your last words, when you fell to the ground? After you were struck by the knife, you tried to push away your assailants with your feet and said, 'Go away, Satan.'
"You repeated it, 'Go away, Satan'. With those words, you expressed... your faith in the goodness of humans and that the devil put his claws in".
During the funeral, it also emerged Father Hamel was a former soldier who fought Algerians during France's savage colonial war with the North African country.
His sister Roselyne Hamel said: "I remember how our brother chose to serve as a simple soldier during the Algerian War, after they wanted to make him an officer.
"He would have had to give the men the order to kill other men. His refusal was categorical."
Despite this, he was involved in front line action during the war, and was the only survivor of a firefight at an oasis.
Escaping the gun battle with Algerian forces fighting for their independence from France gave him enormous spiritual courage in later life, said Ms Hamel.
The two teenagers who cut Father Hamel’s throat at Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray last Tuesday morning were both from Algerian backgrounds.
This raises the possibility that Kermiche, who lived close to the church, may have known about the priest’s service record.
The bitter legacy of the Algerian War, which ended in 1962 after the deaths of hundreds of thousands over eight years, remains strong in France.
French forces were accused of war crimes, including torturing and shooting civilians, and their opponents, the FLN National Liberation Front, often responded in kind.
Outrages spilled over into France itself, where Algerians were murdered by police in cities such as Paris.
Since the war, France’s vast Algerian community has frequently accused the French establishment of discriminating against them, and perpetuating the war against their culture and Muslim religion.
Despite this charged political atmosphere, Christians, Muslims, Jews and other faiths used today’s funeral to remember Father Jacques’s good works.
Representatives of the local Muslim community who attended the funeral meanwhile delivered a powerful condemnation and rejection of the terrorist attack.
Mohammed Karabila, Imam and president of the Normandy Muslim cultural association, said both Kermiche, and his accomplice Petitjean, had acted "sinfully", and were not considered members of the Muslim community.
After today’s service, Father Hamel was buried in a private, family ceremony at an undisclosed location.
President Francois Hollande stayed away from the funeral, prompting theories that he feared being booed.
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