The blessed Columba Marmion,
Abbot of Maredsous (1858-1923)

A spiritual Guide for our times

Abbot Columba Marmion can be described as a unique guide to the souls who seek Christ. A Benedictine monk who had an enormous influence on the spirituality of the 20^th Century, he was recently beatified by Pope John Paul II on September the 3^rd 2000, in Rome, together with Pope Pius IX, Father Guillaume Chaminade, and Pope John XXIII (?).

Joseph Marmion was born in Dublin, Ireland. In 1881, five years after being ordained a priest in Rome where he studied, he entered the Benedictine Abbey of Maredsous in Belgium, and assumed the very Irish name, Columba. He was elected Abbot in 1909, a post he retained until his death in 1923.

During his time as abbot, his vision of Christian life, profoundly rooted in union with Christ and devotion to Mary, and the wealth of Benedictine liturgical tradition, made Maredsous a focal point of spiritual radiation in Europe. His missionary spirit extended throughout the Continent and Holy Land, although he achieved the greatest results, perhaps, in England, when he became the decisive mediator in propitiating the conversion to Catholicism of the Anglican Benedictine men’s and women’s communities of Caldey and Milford Haven, in southern England. Moreover, Abbot Marmion was confessor and great friend of Cardinal Francois Joseph Mercier (1851-1926), another great spiritual leader in Belgium at the time (although the involment of the latter in the early stages of ecumenical discussions with protestants has been rightly critized – Note from the Editor).

However, Abbot Marmion’s great influence is due to his works. Perhaps the best known is “Christ, the Life of the Soul”. Together with “Christ in his Mysteries”, and “Christ, the Ideal of the Monk”, it is one of the sources that has slaked the thirst for God of 20^th century men and women. (from Zenit News Agency, Vatican City, August 25^th 2000)

PREFACE TO THE BOOK: CHRIST, LIFE OF THE SOUL

" Christ, Life of the Soul ", has received in its original forms such ample commendation both from our Holy Father the Pope and from the learned and much venerated Cardinal Archbishop of Malines that any further praise seems almost out of place. Yet very willingly indeed I add my less authoritative tribute to the more important words that they have written, and I very gladly advise all those who seek in the English language a work that will surely help and guide them on the path of closer union with their Maker, to read and study this translation of the extremely valuable treatise which is the outcome of long thought and labour on the part of the Abbot of Maredsous. Those who have been privileged to make retreats under his guidance will know what to expect from his pen, and they will not suffer disappointment. And by his written work and its translation into English his teaching will receive a far wider and more permanent diffusion.

Such solid teaching is much needed at the present time. The number of souls seeking more intimate union with God is rapidly increasing.

But many are held back by the want of simplicity, the discouraging complexity, and the exaggerated refinement and multiplication of detail, which have lessened the value of so many modern spiritual books. The main object of striving has been obscured by too great insistence on the methods of attaining, and the freedom of the soul under the guidance of the Holy Ghost has been impaired. Abbot Marmion carries us back to a wider and more wholesome tradition, and many will rise up to bless him, as they find in his teaching new strength, and fresh vigour in their striving after God.

To the Clergy both in the world and in the cloister, to the religious communities of women, active as well as contemplative, and to the devout laity I very earnestly commend this book.

FRANCIS CARDINAL BOURNE. Archbishop of Westminster.

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