Columba Marmion - Beatification

Beatification

Rapidly, favors and miracles were attributed to him; justifying the transfer, in 1963, of his body from the monks' cemetery to the abbatial church (his body was found to be incorrupt, after more than 40 years). A cure from cancer obtained after a woman from St. Cloud, Minnesota, visited his tomb in 1966 was investigated by the Church and recognized as miraculous in 2000, leading to his beatification in that year.

Dom Columba Marmion was beatified on September 3, 2000 by Pope John Paul II, on the same occasion as:

• Pope John XXIII, who died in 1963
• Pope Pius IX, who died in 1878
• Tommaso Reggio, Archbishop of Genoa, who died in 1901
• William Chaminade, who died in 1850

At the Beatification ceremony Pope John Paul II declared:

He bequeathed to us an authentic treasury of spiritual teaching for the Church of our time. In his writings he teaches a way of holiness, simple and yet demanding, for all the faithful, whom God, through love, has destined to be his adopted children in Christ Jesus... May a wide rediscovery of the spiritual writings of Blessed Columba Marmion help priests, religious and laity to grow in union with Christ and bear faithful witness to Him through ardent love of God and generous service to their brothers and sisters.

May Blessed Columba Marmion help us to live ever more intensely, to understand ever more deeply, our membership in the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ!

Following the Beatification, Dom Marmion's Cause for Canonization has been opened and is very active. Recently (2009) the Archdiocese of Vancouver, Canada, began a canonical investigation into the cure of a man ravaged by a necrotizing fasciitis. He had been expected to die within hours.