Primate to attend the beatification of Dom Columba

The Catholic Primate, Dr Sean Brady, and the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell, will lead about 450 Irish people in Rome tomorrow at the beatification of five people, including the Dublin Benedictine monk Dom Columba Marmion.

Also attending will be the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, the Bishop of Down and Connor, Dr Patrick Walsh, and two abbots from Glenstal, Dom Christopher Dillon and Dom Celestine Cullen.

Among the group will be about 60 members of the Marmion family from Ireland and about 30 members of the Marmion Society from Dundrum, where Dom Columba served for a year until 1882. He trained for the priesthood at Clonliffe College, Dublin, and taught there as professor of philosophy until 1886 when he decided to become a Benedictine monk and entered their abbey at Maredsous in Belgium. He became abbot and died there in 1923 aged 65.

The woman whose cure has made the beatification possible, Mrs Pat Bitzan from St Cloud, Minnesota, in the US, will be in Rome for the ceremonies. She was cured of cancer in 1966 after visiting Dom Marmion's tomb at Maredsous. Father Mark Tierney OSB from Glenstal Abbey, Limerick, vice-postulator of Dom Marmion's cause will also be there.

Among the others to be beatified tomorrow are Pope Pius IX (1792-1878), Pope John XXIII (1881-1963), Tommaso Reggio (1818-1901), bishop and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St Martha, and Guillaume-Joseph Chaminade (1761-1850), priest and founder of the Society of Mary and the Institute of Sisters of Mary Immaculate.

Live coverage of the beatification ceremony can be seen on RTE One television from 9 to 11.40 tomorrow morning.