Blessed Columba Marmion Commemorated
Donal Neary SJ and Pat Coyle of the Jesuit Commuication Centre were guests at a special commemoration ceremony on Sunday April 6, to mark the 150th anniversary of Blessed Columbia Marmion in St Paul’s Church, Arran Quay, the church where he was baptised. Columba Marmion went to school in Belvedere before becoming a diocesean priest and, finally, a Benedictine monk. He was renowned in his day for his great sense of humour and his spiritual wisdom. A film of his life first broadcast in 1965 on RTE was shown on Sunday night, and Fr Columba McCann from Glenstal gave a talk about Dom Columba’s life and spirituality. Bishop Eamon Walshe, himself a former Belvedere pupil, was the main celebrant of the mass which followed. Fr Jim Caffrey, rector of St Paul’s, gave the homily. Columba Marmion was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2000 and his cause for canonization is in its final stages.