Who are the Columbans?

Columban missionaries are Catholics called to share the gospel by crossing borders. We're a group of men and women, religious and lay, single and married, who come from all over the world. It may be interesting to know that most of our missionaries are coming from Asia at this time.

In 2009, the Columban family included 483 priests, 60 lay missionaries and 16 associate priests (diocesan priests "on loan" to the Columbans for a specific number of years). The "Misionary Sisters of Saint Columban," while forming a separate and autonomous society, also share our missionary journey. Columbans are currently working in Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Chile, China, Fiji, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Taiwan and the U.S.A. If you are interested in learning more about our history, then we highly recommend reading The Red Lacquered Gate by William E. Barrett.

The point of this blog entry is to let you know that we're not alone. We are one family who has answered the call to mission, and we are accompanied by a fantastic group of people. Some of those people also like to blog. So, if you're interested in reading about their adventures, you can link to their sites on the side bar to the right under "Columban Blogs."

We especially recommend "Diamonds on a Mission", which is written by American couple Dan and Meri Diamond, who are on their first year of mission in Peru. Other links are from lay missionaries in the Philippines and Columbans in the U.S. We know there are more out there, but haven't been able to track them down yet.

"Columban Lay Mission Conference" held in Chile in 2005.