The French priest murdered in his church by Islamic State terrorists bravely attempted to fight them off, kicking with his feet and screaming, "Go away, Satan!" it has been revealed.

As Father Jacques Hamel was laid to rest on Tuesday, Dominique Lebrun, the archbishop of Rouen, told mourners in the quiet Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray:

"Evil is a mystery. It reaches heights of horror that take us out of the human. 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!'"

Hamel, 85, was reciting morning Mass on July 26 when Islamic State fanatics Adel Kermiche and Abdel Malik Petitjean marched up to the altar.

They grabbed him and then savagely slit his throat as horrified parishioners looked on helplessly. The attackers, aged 19, were shot dead by police as they seized hostages.

Lebrun said Hamel was a faith-filled and loving man of the cloth who died senselessly.

"You expressed your faith in the goodness of humans and the devil put his claws in," Lebrun said, according to London television network ITV.



The slaughter occurred less than two weeks after another ISIS-inspired maniac drove a speeding truck through a crowd of Bastille Day revelers, killing 84.

During the emotional funeral service, Hamel’s sister Roselyne, told the congregation that her brother, who was 85, had been a man of "mercy and love," the BBC reported.



"He chose to serve God so that he can cultivate love and sharing and tolerance among people of all faiths and denominations, believers and non-believers, throughout his life," she said.