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Fr. Columba Stewart - A sense of purpose, a sense of adventure, and a mission to make a meaningful impact through preservation.
If you were to contribute a ‘drop in the bucket’ to address political, religious, or humanitarian challenges, how would you do it? It’s a hard challenge to address, no doubt. While many of us listening to this podcast are still formulating ways that we can use our time, talent, and treasure to address societal challenges that are dear to us, today’s guest has found a profound avenue of work that piques both a sense of adventure and impact.
Fr. Columba Stewart, today’s guest on the podcast, has traveled to the far reaches of the earth on literary rescue missions to save and preserve ancient manuscripts of the Christian and Islamic religions. When he isn’t conserving these ancient texts across the world’s farthest reaches, or meeting Pope Francis in Rome as he most recently did last month, he can be found in the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, or across the St. John’s campus in Collegeville, where he serves as the Executive Director of HMML and a professor of Theology.
To give you a better sense of his adventures and work, here is a quote from a recent article on Fr. Columba in the Smithsonian Magazine “Sometimes I feel like a war correspondent. Other times I’m cast in a religious role. In northern Iraq, I’ll be in my habit at Mass with 1,500 worshipers chanting in Aramaic. Then I’ll be going around in a tank.” - it seems like quite the juxtaposition from a quiet, prayer-filled monastic life in Collegeville, Minnesota. And, if you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend watching the 60 minutes episode with Columba to get a more profound idea.
A common thread through all of this is a connection to the understanding and preservation of history, and a sense of taking part in something bigger than yourself - both in the sense of continuing ancient traditions through preservation and participating in a community like St. John’s.
Resources for more information:
Hill Museum and Manuscript Library website: https://hmml.org/
National Endowment for the Humanities 2019 Jefferson Lecture: https://www.neh.gov/award/father-columba-stewart
Fr. Columba's twitter: https://twitter.com/columbastewart
Harper's Magazine article - August 2022 issue: https://harpers.org/archive/2022/08/the-quest-to-save-ancient-manuscripts-gao-mali/
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By CSB/SJU Young Alums
5
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If you were to contribute a ‘drop in the bucket’ to address political, religious, or humanitarian challenges, how would you do it? It’s a hard challenge to address, no doubt. While many of us listening to this podcast are still formulating ways that we can use our time, talent, and treasure to address societal challenges that are dear to us, today’s guest has found a profound avenue of work that piques both a sense of adventure and impact.
Fr. Columba Stewart, today’s guest on the podcast, has traveled to the far reaches of the earth on literary rescue missions to save and preserve ancient manuscripts of the Christian and Islamic religions. When he isn’t conserving these ancient texts across the world’s farthest reaches, or meeting Pope Francis in Rome as he most recently did last month, he can be found in the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, or across the St. John’s campus in Collegeville, where he serves as the Executive Director of HMML and a professor of Theology.
To give you a better sense of his adventures and work, here is a quote from a recent article on Fr. Columba in the Smithsonian Magazine “Sometimes I feel like a war correspondent. Other times I’m cast in a religious role. In northern Iraq, I’ll be in my habit at Mass with 1,500 worshipers chanting in Aramaic. Then I’ll be going around in a tank.” - it seems like quite the juxtaposition from a quiet, prayer-filled monastic life in Collegeville, Minnesota. And, if you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend watching the 60 minutes episode with Columba to get a more profound idea.
A common thread through all of this is a connection to the understanding and preservation of history, and a sense of taking part in something bigger than yourself - both in the sense of continuing ancient traditions through preservation and participating in a community like St. John’s.
Resources for more information:
Hill Museum and Manuscript Library website: https://hmml.org/
National Endowment for the Humanities 2019 Jefferson Lecture: https://www.neh.gov/award/father-columba-stewart
Fr. Columba's twitter: https://twitter.com/columbastewart
Harper's Magazine article - August 2022 issue: https://harpers.org/archive/2022/08/the-quest-to-save-ancient-manuscripts-gao-mali/