By Fr. John Boles, SSC
“If Columban Mission is a “mad thing to do,” then nothing could be madder – or more inspiring – than three members of the Collier family.” Let me tell you why.
When Jesus’s own family heard about this, they said, “He’s out of his mind” (Mk. 3:21). It’s not surprising that many of Jesus’s contemporaries felt he was crazy. After all, teachings like “Love your enemy, give away your possessions, lay down your life for others” must have sounded insane at the time. Yet, these are the very teachings we Christians hold dear, and that Columban Missionaries have long sought to live out.
So what if some consider our mission “A Mad Thing to Do” (the tongue-in-cheek title of Columban Fr. Neil Collins’s 2017 book)? Yes. We Columbans are ‘crazy, for Christ’ – and proud of it.
Just look at the story of the Collier family, natives of Clogherhead, Co. Louth in Ireland. Three of their members became Columban priests – Uncle Tony, Uncle Kieran and nephew Ray. (As if that wasn’t enough, Ray also had two aunts who became nuns – Auntie Rea with the Franciscans and Auntie Freda with the Enclosed Dominicans.)
Tony went to Korea in the 1930’s, survived four years of Japanese internment during the Second World War, then – incredibly – agreed to return to Korea in 1950 despite the threat of another war. When hostilities finally broke out, he refused to abandon his parishioners and, as a result, was executed by the invading Communist soldiers, becoming the first recorded foreigner to die in the Korean War. It was four months before news of Tony’s fate reached Ireland.
Kieran served for over thirty years in the desperately poor Kachin state, in the far north of Burma (now Myanmar), an area constantly riven by conflict between government and separatist forces. In due course, Burma’s military dictatorship imposed a restriction on foreign missionaries: if they left the country, they wouldn’t be allowed back in. Like his brother Tony, Kieran refused to leave his flock, and so stayed until the Columbans were eventually forced to close the Burma mission altogether in 1978. (Kieran died in Ireland in 1998.)
Many might regard Tony and Kieran’s sacrifices as ridiculous or unnecessary. However…..maybe God sees things differently!
(As an interesting footnote, Tony and Kieran never met as priests. Tony was under internment in Korea at the time of his brother’s ordination, and when Kieran managed to get back on leave to Ireland, Tony was already dead.)
Ray was on mission in the Philippines from 1967 to 1978. He was based in the island of Mindanao, a region plagued by unrest between Christian and Muslim communities. After ill health forced his withdrawal from the Philippines, he moved to Britain, where he chose to work in the inner-city areas – first in London and later in Birmingham. He lived out his vocation by reaching out to immigrant communities and helping foster understanding between groups from different cultural and religious backgrounds.
In fact, he’s still at it – happy and active in his 80s and always stressing how much he’s been inspired by the example of his uncles.
As a boy, he remembers them as devout, warm-hearted and down to earth. “Two things that influenced me were my uncles’ dedication to daily prayer and Eucharist, and their joyful commitment to their people.”
“We all grew very fond of Tony when he was home on holiday in ’49-’50. I loved the humanity of the man. To the family, he was always known as ‘Tony,’ not ‘Fr. Tony.’ The same was true of Kieran. Tony was a skilled Gaelic football player and represented Louth many times.”
(Although, Ray adds, “He had a problem of ‘self-starting.’ He needed a good thump before he would begin to play seriously!”)
Did Tony’s martyrdom influence Ray’s faith and vocation ?
“Initially, not much. But, as time went by, it planted a seed-an ideal, a desire within me to honour his memory.”
More and more, Ray felt drawn to becoming a Columban priest, serving God by crossing boundaries of culture, nationality and faith. His father encouraged him but also kept him grounded. “Dad said, ‘Be your own man. Don’t try to be Tony’ “.
Given that 2025 marks the 75th. anniversary of the Columban Korean martyrs, as well as the 80th. anniversary of the Columban ‘Malate’ martyrs, who died during the Battle of Manila in 1945, and that in this Jubilee Year, Pope Francis calls us to be ‘Pilgrims of Hope,’ how might the stories of people like Tony and Kieran be relevant today ?
Ray feels that the world and the Church have changed since his uncles’ time,. “When I was ordained, we ‘went out there’ to spread the Gospel. Over time I began to see things in a different way. Now, people from ‘there’ are coming here – refugees, migrants, asylum-seekers – and they are met with rejection.”
He goes on to explain, “this reality came home to me very strongly when I worked in the parish of Beckton, East London. On any given Sunday, people from 40 to 50 different cultures and nationalities attended Mass. Today, our mission is just as much here, in our own countries, and it’s about welcoming the stranger. We have to show everyone that ‘difference’ is a blessing, not a threat. This is a new understanding of mission. The challenge of mission is now here, in Europe.”
Sounds crazy? Not to Ray, because it is the RIGHT SORT of craziness. It is the craziness of Pope Francis, the craziness of Christ.
Featured Image above: Father Ray at his uncle Tony’s grave outside Chunchon Cathedral in Korea during a visit in 2000.
(Columban Fr. John Boles is the Regional Director of the Missionary Society of St. Columban in Britain. If you want to read more about him, click this link and this.)
