{"id":26788,"date":"2025-10-06T19:09:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T18:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/?p=26788"},"modified":"2025-10-06T19:09:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T18:09:23","slug":"beloved-of-god-and-men-the-feast-of-blessed-columba-marmion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2025\/10\/beloved-of-god-and-men-the-feast-of-blessed-columba-marmion\/","title":{"rendered":"Beloved of God and Men: The Feast of Blessed Columba Marmion"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Blessed Columba Marmion is one of the secondary patrons of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Cenacle (Silverstream Priory). Although most of Ireland celebrated his feast day on the third of October, that was for us the feast of another secondary patron, Saint Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face and so Blessed Columba Marmion is celebrated today.<\/small><\/p>\n

For the 100th anniversary of Blessed Columba Marmion’s dies natalis<\/em>, his death in this world and “birthday” into eternal life, our monastery’s press, Cenacle Press<\/a> published a fascinating set of essays on the beloved Irish Benedictine abbot whose writings<\/a> are considered by many as comparable to those of the Holy Doctors and were once the constant study of most all Irish priests. In honour of Blessed Marmion’s feast, we are pleased to post the preface of this book.<\/small><\/p>\n

IN THE HUNDRED YEARS THAT HAVE passed since Blessed Columba Marmion\u2019s death in 1923, his contributions to the Church as handed down in his books, letters, and example have only become increasingly relevant and necessary. It would seem a su\ufb03cient contribution even if we only were to mention that Marmion opened the door to two of the greatest saints in the last hundred and \ufb01fty years, St Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of Lisieux and St Teresa of Calcutta. For St Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, it was to Marmion that Pius XI went to ask whether she should be beati\ufb01ed; for St Teresa of Calcutta, Marmion\u2019s writings were those dearest to her and those which most helped her through her decades of darkness. Yet the treasury that Marmion left to us goes far beyond these two saints, and his is a light waiting to be rediscovered that it might illuminate the Church once again.<\/p>\n

Born in Dublin in 1858, Joseph Marmion was the seventh of nine children. His birth followed the deaths of two of his older brothers, both of whom died in their infancy. Begging the intercession of St Joseph, Marmion\u2019s parents were blessed with their third boy whom they consecrated to God\u2019s service and named Joseph in thanksgiving for the great saint\u2019s intercession. His consecration to God took its \ufb01rst step towards being fully realized in 1881 when he was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin. After an intellectually active seminarian formation and several years spent studying in Rome, Marmion\u2019s early priestly life was spent not only in the academic halls for which his lively intellect so well suited him, but also in ministering to prisoners, both male and female. The experiences that he underwent in serving these prisoners shaped him for the rest of his life, for, as Marmion\u2019s biographer, Dom Raymond Thibaut, writes: his service \u2018aroused in him the sense of merciful compassion . . .. He loved these prot\u00e9g\u00e9es of his and felt a strange consolation in pouring balm from his priestly hands on their wounds\u2019.[1]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Indeed, in this ministry to the outcasts of society, he became particularly attuned to the in\ufb01nite mercy of God.<\/p>\n

After some years serving as priest in the Archdiocese of Dublin, in 1886 Marmion took the next step in realizing his consecration to God when he answered the call to leave \u2018his country, his kindred, and his father\u2019s house\u2019 (Gen. 12:1) in order to give himself irrevocably to God in monastic life. On November 21st, 1886, Marmion entered the Abbey of Maredsous in Belgium and received the name Columba, that of the great missionary-monk of Ireland. For the next two decades, Marmion grew and developed into the \u2018chosen arrow\u2019 of God: \ufb01rst through the many trials and humiliations of a di\ufb03cult novitiate and early monastic life, then through his move to Maredsous\u2019 foundation of Mont-C\u00e9sar in Louvain where Marmion was named Prior, theology professor, and spiritual director to the monks. Having been formed through these decades of experience, Marmion eventually was elected as abbot of his parent monastery of Maredsous in 1909, an o\ufb03ce he would retain until his death in 1923.<\/p>\n

In the last decade of his life and for several more after his death, the great abbot of Maredsous was renowned throughout all of Europe and the Americas for his uniquely powerful spiritual teaching, his undaunted governance of the great Beuronese Abbey of Maredsous, and his incomparable Irish wit and wisdom. It is thus a great tragedy that this preeminent \ufb01gure of the Church in the \ufb01rst half of the century fell away from memory in the second half. Yet despite the layers of ash burying any knowledge of this saint, his wisdom remains as glowing embers, ready to ignite with the \ufb02ame of Divine Charity anyone who approaches his writings, which, as Pope Benedict XV declared, contain \u2018the pure doctrine of the Church\u2019.<\/p>\n

Just as Marmion\u2019s writings were dilectus Deo et hominibus<\/em>, \u2018beloved of God and men\u2019, so too was the man himself. Like the great patriarchs and saints of all times, he knew God face to Face, knew Him as his greatest friend. Only from this Fountain of Life could Marmion hope to supply nourishment for the souls entrusted to his care; only if he beheld God\u2019s Light could his monks bene\ufb01t from his lights. So, following in the path of St Benedict, Marmion devoted himself \u2018more to pro\ufb01t than to preside\u2019 over the people he governed.<\/p>\n

Although all of Marmion\u2019s published works come from his time as abbot of Maredsous in the 1910s, the teaching that is presented in these works\u2014 Christ, The Life of the Soul, Christ in His Mysteries, Christ, The Ideal of the Monk, Sponsa Verbi,<\/em> and Christ, The Ideal of the Priest<\/em> (published posthumously)\u2014had been carried with him from the earliest days of his priestly and monastic life. From the very beginning, Marmion\u2019s interior and exterior life focused on God\u2019s merciful Fatherhood; the place of the soul as beloved child of God; abandonment to His providential care; the ine\ufb00able indwelling of the Trinity in the soul; and the centrality of the liturgy in the spiritual life of the Church as well as that of each individual. Through these movements of grace, God was guiding Marmion\u2019s heart towards a teaching not unlike that of St Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of Lisieux. Yet not only was his comprehensive view of the spiritual life to be developed parallel to that of St Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, but it also found echoes in other saints of that period, such as St Elizabeth of the Trinity, St Charles de Foucauld, and St Pius X. Rarely does God raise up saints who stand alone, and in His providential timing, Marmion would share in the great currents of spiritual thought that were running through the turn of the twentieth century. Yet in a masterful way, Marmion\u2019s writings contain their entire scope, embracing them all and helping to undergird them. With incomparable clarity and simplicity, Marmion lays out the great vista of sanctity, the \u2018unsearchable riches of Christ\u2019 (Eph. 3:8), and traces its sublime path to God.<\/p>\n

It was a great blessing to the Church, then, when Pope St John Paul II beati\ufb01ed Columba Marmion on September 3rd, 2000. As the pope said: \u2018Marmion left us an authentic treasure of spiritual teaching for the Church of our time. In his writings he teaches a simple yet demanding way of holiness for all the faithful, whom God has destined in love to be His adopted children through Jesus Christ.\u2019[2]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Twenty-three years later, this statement still rings true.<\/p>\n

The essays contained in the present volume are a testament to this fact for they demonstrate the great breadth of souls that Blessed Marmion speaks to even down to our own day and age. From Marmion\u2019s doctrine based upon our spiritual adoption by the Father to the centrality of Christ\u2019s mysteries lived and participated in through the Church\u2019s liturgy; from his \ufb01rm foundation in Scripture, particularly the writings of St Paul, to his absolute adherence to the teachings of the Church, particularly as transmitted by St Thomas Aquinas; from his exposition of the beauty and goodness of the religious life to his care for the universal call to holiness; and from his soaring insights into the great heights of Truth to his dwelling in the particularities of each individual and each circumstance, all with an eminently human touch, Marmion has something to say to \u2018all the faithful\u2019. To each Marmion o\ufb00ers Christ: \u2018Christ today, yesterday, and forever\u2019 (Heb. 13:8). With a heart attuned to and beating with the heart of the Church, Christ\u2019s beloved Bride, Marmion presents to us Christ contemplated, loved, and lived, not with a theoretical knowledge, but with a real and lively faith. The Church is gifted but rarely with souls so comprehensive as to reach all of Her children, but there is no doubt that Blessed Columba Marmion was one such soul: a soul beloved of both God and men.<\/p>\n

It is our prayer that the present volume will share more widely the teaching and writings of Blessed Columba Marmion, the \u2018pure doctrine of the Church\u2019, so as to enrich all God\u2019s children with the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to rekindle the hearts of the faithful through one who is undoubtedly a saint for our times.<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a>\u00a0Thibaut, Raymond, OSB, Abbot Columba Marmion: A Master of the Spiritual Life 1858\u20131923<\/em><\/a>, trans. Mother Mary St Thomas (London: Sands & Co. 1932), 33.<\/span><\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[2]<\/a>\u00a0\u201cHomily of His Holiness John Paul II for the Beati\ufb01cation of Pius IX, John XXIII, Tommaso Reggio, William Chaminade and Columba Marmion\u201d<\/a>, September 3, 2000.<\/span><\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blessed Columba Marmion is one of the secondary patrons of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Cenacle (Silverstream Priory). Although most of Ireland celebrated his feast day on the third of October, that was for us the feast of another secondary patron, Saint Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face and <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":589,"featured_media":26791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blessed-columba-marmion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-2025-10-06-at-18-17-52-Add-a-New-Post-\u2039-Vultus-Christi-\u2014-WordPress.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-6Y4","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26788"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/589"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26788"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26796,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26788\/revisions\/26796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}