"Died So That Lebanon May Live", The Ultimate Sacrifice of Nicolas Kluiters SJ (1/3)

The feast of Saint Joseph (March 19), patron of the University that bears his name, brought back to the memory of its new rector, François Boëdec s.j., the recollection of Alban de Jerphanion, the first Jesuit martyr of the interminable war that broke out in 1975 in Lebanon, and a new episode of which, hopefully the last, opened in early March. Five other martyrs of this war fell after Father de Jerphanion. As a sign of homage, and with the publication of a new biography dedicated to one of their holiest figures, that of the Dutch priest Nicolas Kluiters, whose beatification process has begun, we present here this work, which includes unpublished details on the motivations of those who killed Father Nicolas. We also take this opportunity to highlight the general meaning of the gift he made to Lebanon, so that our homeland remains a model of "liberty and pluralism" for the East and the West, at the very moment when a militarized nation threatens to amputate an essential part of its territory bearing the memory of Christ's passage.

Exalted as a land of holiness, Lebanon is also a country where, alas, priests are killed. The new rector of Saint-Joseph University, Father François Boëdec, mentioned this year (2026) in the annual discourse on the state and future of the University the figure of one of the first Jesuit "martyrs" of the civil war: Father Alban de Jerphanion, hatefully shot by a group of armed men on March 14, 1976, at the intersection of Mar Mikhaël church, while he was going to the airport to drop off a traveler.

The words of the new rector pave the way for the remembrance of five other Jesuits "who died for Lebanon to live," particularly the Dutch priest Nicolas Kluiters, whose beatification process is underway. A documented biography has been dedicated to this model priest by the essayist, novelist, and journalist Carole Dagher (Passion for a neglected land, Lessius). A supplement to this work, The art of reconciliation in a torn Lebanon, has just been published by Dar el-Machrek. It is written by Francis Berkemeijer s.j., a compatriot and contemporary of the assassinated priest.

This new work provides details on the circumstances of the passion and violent death of him who is considered "an artist of reconciliation"; a man who succeeded, through hard work, tact, self-forgetfulness, and perseverance, in developing Barqa, a forgotten Maronite village in the Bekaa, to the point that its inhabitants no longer felt the need to leave it.

For Father Nicolas Kluiters' greatest achievement is undeniably having reconciled two families in Barqa who no longer spoke to each other. Revealed for the first time in this book, the details of his violent end attest to the courageous and holy death at 45 of a man of God, after unspeakable suffering; they also reveal the extent of the shortsightedness, cynicism, and cruelty of the Syrian Assad dictatorship, whose intelligence services are not strangers to his death.

Christians, the real challenge

"The miracle of my vocation in Barqa is that I was able to experience how villagers who fought among themselves became men working together," Nicolas writes in his diary.

"In Barqa, there is no home without a photo of Father Nicolas," asserts the author of the new biography, who is in charge of the company's archives. "I believe that the reconciliation of the Barqa families is his greatest miracle," he adds.

"For Nicolas, tensions between Christians and Muslims were not the biggest challenge. The real challenge was above all the vendettas between Christian clans, which often led to blood feuds and where members of families living in the same village no longer wanted to have contact with each other," the biographer further explains.

These disputes erupted particularly when "abduction marriages" (khatifé) occurred, Father Berkmeijer specifies. Probable signs of a shift in mentality towards freedom of choice for spouses, the older generation could oppose these unions with an absolute rigidity of conduct that led to a total breakdown between families, and sometimes to acts of revenge.

They say it's easier to bend an iron bar with bare hands than to change hearts. This change was the miracle that occurred in Barqa thanks to Father Nicolas. One of his means was simply personal contact. He worked wonders with a group of Palestinians who were blocking the construction of a chapel dedicated to Saint Charbel, near mountain pastures where Barqa goatherds went in summer. The Palestinians ended up helping to pour the roof.

An "abandoned" region

Arriving in Lebanon in 1966, Father Nicolas exercised his apostolate in the northern part of the central Bekaa plain, a primarily agricultural region which, despite the richness of its soil, remained poor and neglected.

The newcomer had to confront the spiritual, cultural, and material poverty of his rural environment. In Barqa, where his pastoral service was concentrated, two clans of the same Maronite family coexisted without speaking to each other, attending Sunday mass in two distinct churches, located at opposite ends of the village.

In this tribal environment, the law of vendetta was still in force, and an offense could only be "washed" in blood.

It was to this unsophisticated Christian society that he devoted most of his energy, living for several years without a home, sharing the lives of the inhabitants, eating and sleeping in their homes. As a true Dutchman, this upright man of temperament had to get used to "Lebanese vagueness."

Barqa was not his only concern. He traveled extensively in the region, providing catechesis, evangelical evenings, baptisms, first communion training sessions, and masses.

Around the archipelago of Maronite villages scattered at the foot of Mount Lebanon (eastern slope), all villages were Shiite or "mixed."

Left to themselves, placed in a minority situation, exposed to the tensions of war and the risks of displacement outside their region, all the inhabitants thought only of emigration.

Nicolas quickly learned that the choice was clear: either give the inhabitants the means to survive, or resign themselves to their departure. But in his eyes, there was no choice: he threw himself wholeheartedly into the development of the village. To this end, he even obtained a diploma as a social worker from the Lebanese School of Social Training, now affiliated with Saint-Joseph University.

Construction of a road and pipelines

In a few years, with the active collaboration of the inhabitants, he succeeded in building a road leading to the agricultural lands above the village; there, he had concrete channels built to irrigate the fruit trees - a substitute for hashish cultivation. He managed to have an auxiliary school built in the center of the village, thus bringing its two conflicting parts closer together, and secured the arrival of nuns from the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts to take care of it.

On the same site, thanks to the Order of Malta, a dispensary was opened. He was finally able to set up a sewing workshop in collaboration with a Beirut factory that provided the material, thus creating work for the women of the village.

Loving men for the love of God doesn't come naturally. For the world, selflessness does not exist. For a Christian, selflessness is the only virtue that allows one to overcome the ingratitude with which work is sometimes received.

The components of Father Nicolas's holiness in social work have not yet been clearly enough elucidated to be offered as an example. Let's say that they first include professionalism in the execution of tasks.

Sustainable development held no secrets for Nicolas Kluiters. But he was a methodical man who "hated improvisation," says Father Berkmeijer.

It also included the spirit of partnership between the families of Barqa or between the families and the clergy. Finally, it included absolute non-discrimination among the beneficiaries of the completed projects.

All the villages surrounding Barqa benefited from his dispensary. Finally, it included the love of poverty, the fraternity of the poor. "It was from the mouths of the poor," his journal says, "that the Lord spoke to him most directly."

Next article: The martyrdom, in Lebanon, of Nicolas Kluiters s.j., facing Evil (2/3)