“They [the attackers] arrived in the church this morning and everyone was shouting ‘stop it! Don’t you realize what you’re doing? Stop! Stop!’ Nothing happened.”
Thus begins Sr. Danielle’s harrowing eye-witness account of the ISIS attack on a French church during Mass in which the attackers slit the throat of the 85-year-old priest Fr. Jacques Hamel. She was attending the Mass that was interrupted by the ISIS attackers.
“They forced him to his knees,” she told French TV station BMFTV, “and he tried to defend himself and that’s when the drama began.
“I reacted when he attacked [Fr.] Jacques and he was on his knees and nearly made him fall and that’s when I ran, I got out fast and he [the attacker] was busy giving him [the priest] the knife so he didn’t see me leave. People were screaming, the couple screamed, everyone reacted.
“It was filmed too, they filmed themselves, it was like a sermon around the altar, in Arabic.
“It was terrible. I must say he was an extraordinary priest, that’s all I can say and a great, a great Father Jacques.”
UPDATE: “I’ll Work Until My Last Breath”: Fr. Hamel’s Dedication Remembered by Friends
Listen to Sr. Danielle tell her story (in French, with English subtitles):
Here’s a news report on the attack:
[See also: Roman Exorcist on ISIS: Christians Must “Fight the Beast Spiritually”]
[See also: “Forgive Them”: Powerful Last Words of Christian Girl Burned Alive by ISIS]