Saint Who?
Saints Who Promoted the Rosary
Blessed Columba Marmion
Priest and religious († 1923)Feast: October 3
“We should be by grace what Jesus was by nature, a child of God and a child of Mary.” Born in Dublin in 1858, Joseph Aloysius Marmion combined a strong faith, pleasant temper, and lively sense of humor. He was ordained a diocesan priest, but only spent a year as a parish priest before he was sent to teach philosophy in the seminary.
Five years after his ordination, he received permission to transfer to a Benedictine abbey in Belgium, becoming Dom Marmion. He made his final profession in 1891, and shortly thereafter was invited to preach at a nearby parish. Despite Marmion’s imperfect French, the pastor declared he had never had so gifted a homilist. Marmion became a famous retreat master and one of the most influential writers of his time.
Marmion loved the rosary. A fellow monk tells how he often repeated: “If ever I come to the end of a day without having said the rosary, I confess that I feel disappointed. There are some people who say: ‘The rosary is a good thing for women and children.’ Granted. But what does our Lord say? Unless you become as little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven—and for my part, I want to go there!” Marmion died January 20, 1923, and was beatified in 2000.
Lord Jesus Christ, grant that we may grow
as your adopted brothers and sisters
through faithful Marian devotion.
