The jihadists who murdered a French priest in front of his altar failed to whip up fear and hatred, President Emmanuel Macron declared at a ceremony to mark the annivesary of the killing, reports RFI.
Ministers, Catholic and Muslim leaders attended the event to pay homage to Father Jacque Hamel, whose throat was cut as he celebrated mass in a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray on the outskirts of Rouen.
Adel Kermiche and Abdel Malik Petitjean murdered the 85-year-old priest at 9.00am on 26 July 2016 in front of a congregation of five, also stabbing, but failing to kill, parishioner Guy Coponet in front of his wife.
"At the foot of his altar the two terrorists surely believed they were sowing a thirst for vengeance and reprisals among the Catholics of France," Macron declared. "They failed."
"No, hate did not triumph and will not triumph," Rouen Archbishop Dominique Lebrun, who officiated, said.
The three nuns who were in the congregation at the time of the attack attended Wednesday's ceremony but 87-year-old Coponet, who underwent two operations, and his wife, Janine, did not, apparently because the memory is too painful.
Also present were prime minister Edouard Philippe, interior minister Gérard Collomb, Anouar Kbibech, who has just retired as head of the French Muslim grouping CFCM, and 14 members of Hamel's family.
"Jacques was a spiritual guide for us all," Hamel's sister Roseline told RFI. "He was friends to many people. For some he was a family friend, for others, a man they turned to in times of difficulty. He was a humanist."
Hundreds of people watched the ceremony on giant screen outside the church and a "republican monument to peace and fraternity" was unveiled in afterwards.