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Our Founders
The Missionary Society of St. Columban was born from the vision of two young priests, Edward Galvin and John Blowick.
After being ordained at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, Ireland, Ed Galvin took up temporary duties in a parish in New York in 1910. He was due to return to Ireland but had an overwhelming urge to become a missionary. An encounter with a priest about to return to his mission work in China, lead him instead to Shanghai. Despite the difficulties of language and socio- political upheaval, Galvin saw the desperate needs of China and the great potential it presented.
In 1916, Ed Galvin decided to return to Ireland with formal requests for assistance and support. While at home he met John Blowick, a member of the seminary staff who was attracted to the idea of China. With other friends and supporters, these two men formally requested that a mission house or college be established, under the care and authority of the Irish Bishops. This college would supply priests for work in China. The request was approved and the young men travelled the country raising support for the idea.
The founding of the Society
It was in March 1917 that the new society officially took the name of "Maynooth Mission to China" (later the "Missionary Society of St. Columban") in honour of Ireland's greatest missionary. A house and land were purchased and St. Columban's Seminary was established in January 1918. The first issue of The Far East, the society's magazine, was published in the same month. The Columbans went on to establish houses in Nebraska, USA in 1918 and in Melbourne, Australia in 1920.
The first young Columbans to go to China arrived in 1920 to meet the challenge of its languages and cultures and to share the suffering of its poor. There was political turmoil in the 1920's in China, with open hostility between the warlords and the Nationalist Party of Sun Yat-Sen, as well as the growing strength of the Communist Party. This made life difficult for the early missionaries. Anti-foreign sentiments swept the country and priests and nuns were often abused and insulted when they appeared in public. Fr. Cornelius Tierney died in communist hands after long months of captivity and torture.
Over the following years China suffered many tragedies, which the Columbans shared. Floods, famine, epidemics of cholera, typhoid and malaria, as well as war and persecution did not stop the work. The Columbans continued in their efforts for the Chinese people through the Japanese invasion, World War II and civil war. Ed Galvin, by now a bishop, was dubbed the most bombed bishop in the world. It was however, the rule of the Communist Party, which had come to power in 1949, which was to spell the end of the work of the Columbans in China. After a brief period of bitter persecution, all missionaries were expelled.
John Blowick
Edward Galvin