Blessed Columba Marmion OSB | |
|---|---|
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| Abbot, and Religious | |
| Born | 1 April 1858 Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | 30 January 1923 (aged 64) Maredsous Abbey, Belgium |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 3 September 2000, Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II |
| Feast | 30 January |
Columba Marmion, OSB, born Joseph Aloysius Marmion (1 April 1858 – 30 January 1923) was a Benedictine Irish monk and the third Abbot of Maredsous Abbey in Belgium. Beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 3, 2000, Columba was one of the most popular[1] and influential[2] Catholic authors of the 20th century. His books are considered spiritual classics.[3]
Columba was born in Queen Street, Dublin, Ireland on 1 April 1858, into a large and very religious family; three of his sisters became nuns. His father, William Marmion was from Clane, County Kildare. His mother, Herminie Cordier was French, prompting his biographer, Dom Raymond Thibaut to remark: "He owes to his Celtic origin his penetrating intelligence, his lively imagination, his sensibility, his exuberance and his youthful spirit. The French blood which ran in his veins contributes to his clearness of mind, his habit of clear perception, his ease of exposition, and his uprightness of character. From the combination of the two he derives his constant gaiety and his generosity of heart with all the strength, devotion, and fine feeling which this noble quality implies."[4] He was baptised with the name "Joseph Aloysius". From a very early age he was seemingly "consumed with some kind of inner fire or enthusiasm for the things of God."[5] He was educated at the Jesuit Belvedere College in Dublin.
He entered the seminary at the age of 16.[6] At the time he entered the seminary, his "faith was very strong";[7] he perceived "something more than simple theoretical theses"[7] in Catholic doctrine, in particular "that a man's love for God is measured by his love for his neighbor."[8]
A "very important moment in Dom Marmion's inner life"[9] occurred while he was still in seminary.
He completed his studies in Rome at the Pontifical Irish College and was ordained in 1881.[11]
On his journey back to Ireland, he passed through Maredsous, Belgium – a young and dynamic monastery founded 9 years before (in 1872) by Benedictine monks from the Abbey of Beuron, Germany.[12] He wished very much to join the community there.[13] But his archbishop in Ireland refused his request to do so and appointed him as curate at Dundrum,[14] a parish in the south of Dublin. After a year, he was appointed Professor of Metaphysics at Holy Cross College at Clonliffe, the Dublin diocesan seminary where Marmion himself had studied.[15] For the next four years (1882–1886) he embarked on the education and spiritual direction of others, including an appointment as chaplain to a nearby convent.[16]
Marmion's work as a parish priest "daily brought him into contact with a cross-section of humanity," and he was "called upon to advise, teach, console and give every kind of spiritual and material aid."[17] He "possessed an extraordinary facility for adapting himself to other people," and above all "in comforting others and putting them at their ease."[17] During this period he began to learn "the delicate art of spiritual direction in which he was later to excel."[18]
His four years as a professor at Clonliffe (1882–1886) "helped to complete his intellectual and spiritual formation. Thrown into the atmosphere of college life, he soon found himself in his native element."[15]
Marmion joined the monastic community at Maredsous in 1886, having received his archbishop's approval.[19] At first, it was very hard for him, even "traumatic."[20] He was 27 years old, a respected priest and professor. In Maredsous he was a novice, and had as well to learn a language (French) and monastic disciplines that were foreign to him.
After his Solemn Profession on 10 February 1891, Columba[21] (as he was now called) was appointed to act as assistant to the Novice Master – with whom he got on rather badly[22] – and in addition to preach at parishes in the vicinity of the Abbey.
"There was an element of the dramatic in his initiation into pastoral work. A neighboring parish priest, whose preacher had unexpectedly failed him on the eve of a great feast, came to the Benedictines to ask their help in his difficulty. The superior was very sorry, but he had no one to offer him except a young Irish monk whose French was far from perfect. 'I will take him all the same,' said the parish priest, and he brought off Dom Columba. Three days later he brought him back to the Abbey saying: 'We have never had such a preacher before in my parish.' And soon the other parish priests were competing with each other for 'the Irish father.'"[23]
During a season of "monastic calm" from 1891 to 1899,[24] Marmion's spiritual life came "to full maturity"[25]> as he attended to "the various duties of the monastic state, the life of silence and recollection, of constant fidelity to the liturgy."[24] Of particular importance to him were developing a spirit of obedience,[26] compunction,[27] and humility,[28] as well as continued growth in the fundamental matters of faith,[29] hope,[30] and charity.[31]
Above all, his spiritual life became more and more centred on Christ.
In 1899, Dom Columba helped to found the Abbey of Mont César, Louvain, Belgium, and became its first Prior.[35] He was invested with heavy responsibilities: Director of Studies for the young monks; Professor of Theology; spiritual director of Carmelite nuns, all in addition to being Prior. He gave retreats in Belgium and the United Kingdom. He also became confessor to the future Cardinal Mercier.[36]
Marmion's great gift for teaching came into full bloom during this period. His lectures were distinguished by, "on the one hand, his extreme clearness, and on the other his happy and fluent application of doctrine to the inner life".[37] Rather than presenting "revealed truths like mere theorems of geometry having no bearing on the interior life",[38] Marmion sought to inspire his students to "live in and by the mysteries he set forth to them".[39]
In 1893, Dom Hildebrand de Hemptinne, Second Abbot of Maredsous, was appointed by Pope Leo XIII as the first Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Order.[41] At the request of the Pope, Dom Hildebrand continued as Abbot of Maredsous, but relinquished that office in 1909.[42]
In that year, at the age of 51, "at the height of his powers, both physical and intellectual",[43] Dom Marmion was elected Third Abbot of Maredsous. A community consisting of a hundred monks,[44] it ran two schools[45] and was a publisher, in particular of La Revue bénédictine.[46] Marmion adopted as his motto Magis prodesse quam praesse, "To serve rather than be served," a maxim taken from the Rule of St. Benedict.[47] The monastery had great spiritual and intellectual influence under his leadership. Vocations abounded. But Dom Marmion was not indifferent to temporal matters. Thus he had the Abbey equipped with electricity and central heating, facilities rarely to be found in monasteries at that time.[48]
In 1909, the government of Belgium asked Maredsous to consider founding a Benedictine monastery in Katanga, in the Belgian Congo.[50] Doubtless Dom Marmion's missionary spirit would not have hesitated; but the Community preferred to devote itself to research and to the promotion of sources of the faith, rather than to launch out into direct evangelization. However, Marmion lent effective aid to this mission, which was taken on by the Abbey of Saint André at Bruges.[51]
A few years later, Marmion gave help and support to the conversion to Catholicism of Anglican communities in Wales (Caldey and Milford Haven).[52]
When war broke out in 1914 Dom Marmion, fearing that his young novices might be called up, sent them to Ireland.[53] This involved Marmion travelling, disguised as a cattle dealer, through the war zone from Belgium to England, "without passport or papers of any kind".[54] During the war years Marmion continued his activities as a preacher and spiritual director. In 1915 he wrote to a young man preparing for ordination: "The best of all preparations for the priesthood is to live each day with love, wherever obedience and Providence place us."[55]
However, the Irish house, established at Edermine, did not give him entire satisfaction; the attitude of the young novices grieved him: "I have tried to win them by constancy and prayer, but so far without success. They are good, but full of confidence in themselves... They oppose the letter of Canon Law to the spirit of the Holy Rule."[56] The Edermine house was closed in 1920.[57]
After the war, the need to provide replacements for the German monks of the Beuronese congregation who had been expelled from the Benedictine Monastery of the Dormition, on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, made Marmion dream of there being a foundation from Maredsous in the Holy Land.
Despite his efforts and the support they gained, this dream was not realized and the German monks returned to the Dormition.[58]
In 1895, Marmion gave a retreat for a small group of nuns. The notes for those talks contained in kernel an idea he would develop during the next 20 years – meditating upon it in prayer, and refining and polishing it in the many talks he gave as a popular retreat master.[59] In its finished form it became Christ, the Life of the Soul (1917) – a book that was first published privately, but then rapidly, unexpectedly, became an "overwhelming success"[60] in the Catholic world.
At the time of its publication, much Catholic literature was a mere "rehash... of pious thoughts,"[61] marked by a "sentimental emphasis," and a tendency towards a sterile "refinement of interior analysis."[62] "Little attention was paid to the Bible, the Fathers and the great masters of the spiritual life."[62] In this atmosphere, Marmion's work seemed like "something new,"[62] even "revolutionary."[61] "It was as if the desert had received its long-awaited rain."[60] His books "initiated a profound spiritual revival the influence of which... permeated the whole Catholic world."[63]
Yet there was essentially "nothing new" in Marmion's work.[64] Rather, his "revolution" was effected by "a return to what was fundamental",[65] specifically his restoration of "Christ as the center of all... spiritual thinking."[64]
A second major theme of his work is the doctrine of divine adoption in Christ.[66] Marmion did not originate this idea, but "it would be difficult to find another who had given the mystery such preeminence, making it, as he does, the beginning and the end of the spiritual life. And with Dom Marmion, it is not so much a theory or a system, as a living truth that acts directly on the soul."[67] Some believe the Catholic Church will one day formally declare Marmion the Doctor of Divine Adoption.[68] Sources for Marmion's thought include, preeminently, the Bible (especially St. Paul and St. John), the Church Fathers, St. Thomas Aquinas, and the Liturgy (i.e., the Mass, the Divine Office, the sacraments), as well as St. Francis de Sales and Msgr. Charles Gay.[69]
Marmion's writings have received formal and informal endorsements from multiple popes, including Benedict XV,[70] Pius XI,[71] Pius XII,[72] Paul VI,[72] and John Paul II.[72]
With Cardinal Mercier, his friend and confidant, Marmion was a spiritually dominant figure on the Belgian and international scene. The publication of his books had met with "immediate and overwhelming success,"[60] and they were rapidly being translated into a number of languages, including Korean and Japanese.[73][failed verification] His influence was at its height, despite his fatigue and precarious state of health.
In September 1922, at the request of the Bishop of Namur, he led the annual diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes.[74]
In October of the same year, he presided at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the foundation of Maredsous Abbey (which he had governed as abbot for 14 years).[75]
Marmion was struck during a flu epidemic, and died on 30 January 1923.[76]
Rapidly, favours and miracles were attributed to him, justifying the transfer, in 1963, of his body from the monks' cemetery to the abbatial church. His body was found to be incorrupt after more than 40 years.[77] A cure from cancer obtained after a woman from St. Cloud, Minnesota, visited his tomb in 1966 was investigated by the Church and recognized as miraculous in 2000,[78] leading to his beatification in that year.
Dom Columba Marmion was beatified on 3 September 2000 by Pope John Paul II, on the same occasion as Pope John XXIII, Pope Pius IX, Tommaso Reggio, and William Chaminade.[79]
At the beatification ceremony, Pope John Paul II declared:
Following the beatification, Dom Marmion's cause for canonization has been opened. In 2009, the Archdiocese of Vancouver, Canada, began a canonical investigation into the cure of a man ravaged by a necrotizing fasciitis. He had been expected to die within hours.[81]
Both Marmion Abbey and Marmion Academy (established in 1933) in Aurora, Illinois are named in his honour.
Thanks to Dom Raymond Thibaut, his secretary, the central teachings of Columba, delivered orally in French,[82] were memorialized in writing as follows:
These were translated into English, respectively, as follows:
