THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. COLUMBAN
Transforming Communities Through Mission

On 29 June 1918, the venture of young Irish priests known as the ‘ Maynooth Mission to China’ was officially baptized as the Society of St Columban in the Diocese of Galway, Ireland. The Maynooth Mission was ‘conceived’ between 1912 and 1916 when Fr. Edward Galvin, ordained in 1909, and three or four other Irish diocesan priests saw the need for a mission of the Irish Church to China.

The vision of a mission of the Irish Church to China broadened to a more international one. After the Society of St Columban was set up – all the founding members were Irish diocesan priests and seminarians – priests were sent to the USA and Australia to establish roots there, especially among the large Irish diaspora. Irish-American Archbishop Jeremiah Harty of Omaha, Nebraska, USA, invited the Society to set up shop there. He had been Archbishop of Manila (1903 – 1916), the first non-Spaniard to hold that position. The first group of Columban priests went to China in 1920.

In response to an urgent appeal by Archbishop Harty’s successor in Manila, Irishman Michael O’Doherty, the Columbans took over Malate Parish in 1929. By the 1970s. around 260 Columbans were working in Luzon, Negros and Mindanao. All the parishes they staffed and opened, except Malate, are now served by diocesan priests and the number of Columban priests in the Philippines is around 30.

Over the years, the Columbans have taken on missions in Korea, Burma (now Myanmar), Japan, Chile, Peru, Fiji, Pakistan and Taiwan. They have had missions also in Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Guatemala and Jamaica.

Most of the younger Columban priests are from countries the older men had gone to from the West. Fr Leo Distor, the first Filipino Columban parish priest of Malate, is a symbol of the changing face of the Society. After serving in Korea, he spent many years in Chicago and in Quezon City in the formation of future Columban priests from Asia, the Pacific and South America.

Through the years, there have been Columban seminarians from China, Fiji, Myanmar, the Philippines and Tonga in the formation house in Cubao, Quezon City and on the two-year First Mission Assignment (FMA) overseas.

The young Fr Edward Galvin (1882-1956), later Bishop of Nancheng, China, and the young Fr John Blowick (1888-1972), not to mention the Irish bishops in 1916, could not have foreseen how the Maynooth Mission to China would evolve from being a purely Irish venture into the international Society it is today with Priest Associates from dioceses in Ireland, Korea, Myanmar and the Solomon Islands, and Lay Missionaries from Chile, Fiji, Ireland, Korea, Philippines and Tonga currently involved in its mission.

The Malate Parish has been deeply blessed by the presence of our Columban priests and lay missionaries who have been the steadfast pastors and partners of the community in its journey of faith.

Congratulations on the MSSC’s 104th founding anniversary! May the Society grow and live on forever!

(Grateful acknowledgment: Excerpts from the article, “A Columban Centennial”, by Fr. Sean Coyle)

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