Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of St Andrews, September 2009. / Restricted until 2nd September 2014.

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Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 47-48).

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 47-48).

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [89]-91).

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [89]-91).

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [89]-91).

This thesis aims to show that the Columban Society made definable and significant contributions to the Australian Catholic missionary movement. The scope of the thesis is an analysis of the work of the Missionary Society of St Columban (Columban Society) in Australia from 1920-2000. Rather than the Society’s foundation in Ireland or its overseas missionary work, the focus is the activity of the Columban Society in Australia. The thesis argues that the Columban Society helped advance the understanding and practice of overseas mission within the Australian Catholic Church in four major ways. Firstly, by organising support for its own missionary venture in China and elsewhere, it helped foster mission mindedness among Australian Catholics and established structures for the ongoing resourcing of missionary activity. Secondly, it set up seminaries to train missionary priests and later opened its reformed tertiary level missionary formation programs to all church personnel in Australia. Thirdly, it helped mould Catholic opinion through its commentary on such international issues as Australian relations with Asian peoples. Finally, it contributed to the development and dissemination of new Catholic theological teaching, particularly in relation to social justice and indigenous churches, religious dialogue and the connections between faith and ecology. The Columban Society carved out a position for itself in Australia through negotiating with the local Catholic Church. Starting as a group of diocesan priests and, from 1920 onwards, tapping into the numerous Irish church personnel in Australia, the Society grew to become a missionary arm of the local church. It created a network of financial support and influence at the grass roots level in parishes and schools through a system of regular visits, collections and a monthly magazine. As the world and church changed, it added mission education programs that fed back to Australian Catholics ideas and experiences coming from the new indigenous churches. The distinctive contribution of the Columban Society to the Australian Catholic Missionary Movement lies in its close relationship with diocesan based parish Catholics and the teaching role it developed about missionary experiences of overseas churches within the context of international affairs. The Society has a significant placewithin the social history of Australia because of the direct influence it had on the opinions of the more than a quarter of the Australian population who identified as Catholics. The history of the Society is also a case study in the application of the reforms of the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council of the Catholic Church 1962-1965 and the consequent redefinition of orthodox belief and practice.

The seventh century was a formative period in the history of western monasticism. It was during this period that a monastic culture became more entrenched on the Continent with the foundation of new monasteries that were more closely tied to royal and aristocratic power. The catalyst behind this development was the Irish abbot and monastic founder, Columbanus (c. 550-615), and his Frankish disciples, the Columbanians. Columbanus’s ascetical exile to the Continent in 590 and his founding of monasteries in the Vosges forests of Burgundy and at Bobbio in Lombard Italy had a deep impact on Frankish and Lombard societies. Luxeuil in Burgundy became the nexus of the Hiberno-Frankish monastic movement in Merovingian Gaul in the years following Columbanus’s death, while Bobbio became an important centre of Catholic orthodoxy and influence in Lombard Italy. This thesis considers our principal source for Columbanus and the Columbanian familia, Jonas of Bobbio’s Vita Columbani abbatis et discipulorumque eius, written between 639 and 642. This is arguably the most important hagiographical work produced in the seventh century and one of the most significant of the early Middle Ages. I propose that the work was principally a Bobbio production meant to re-vindicate Columbanus’s saintly reputation amongst the Frankish communities and to criticize the dissent and disunity that had led to a change in Columbanian practices a decade after the saint’s death. I also consider whether it was addressed to a wider royal and aristocratic audience in Merovingian Gaul and propose new insights into the structure of the work. In addition to a close textual study of the Vita Columbani and Jonas’s other, lesser-known saints’ Lives, the Vita Vedastis and the Vita Iohannis, I explore the career of Jonas himself, seeing him as an individual whose life reflected many of the changing political, cultural, and religious circumstances of his age.

Research object of this thesis is Magnus the Apostle of the Allgäu area in Germany. Based on the historical background, this thesis analyses Magnus concerning the way and impact of his apostolic ministry to understand and compare it to the ministry of the biblical apostolic ministry and thus describe criteria of apostolic ministry and consequences until today. The originality of this thesis lies, due to a limites written sources concerning the vita of Magnus, in firstly an investigation into historical developments of his context in the Allgäu, secondly evaluates his Iro-Scottish backround and thirdly describes the historical impact. The resulting insights are compared between the apostolic-missionary work of Magnus and the New Testament. The conclusion summarizes the ministry of the apostle into a number of statements Which are in harmony with the life of Magnus and the context of the New Testament. / Forschungsgegenstand dieser Arbeit ist Magnus (699-772 n. Chr.), der Apostel des Allgaus. Aufgabe der Untersuchung ist es, basierend auf dem literarhistorischen Hintergrund des Magnus seine Biographie zu untersuchen, um eine Vorstellung liber die Art und Weise seiner apostolischen Wirksamkeit zu gewinnen. Die Besonderheit dieser Arbeit besteht darin, dass auf Grund des eingeschrankten schriftlichen Quellenbefundes der Magnusvita zum Einen die Erfassung des geschichtlichen Werdens seines Wirkungsfeldes im Allgau, zum Zweiten die Untersuchung seines iroschottischen Hintergrundes und zum Dritten die Darstellung seiner Wirkungsgeschichte unabdingbar sind. Die so gewonnenen Kenntnisse ermoglichen einen thesenhaften Vergleich zwischen dem apostolisch-missionarischen Wirken des Magnus und dem der Apostel des Neuen Testamentes. / Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)