Columba Cary-Elwes

Dom Columba Cary-Elwes, OSB (born Charles Evelyn George Cary-Elwes in London) was an English Benedictine monk who professed vows at Ampleforth Abbey in York, England. As a missionary he travelled to Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya and has written books on Christianity. Cary-Elwes was educated by the Jesuits at Saint Michel, Brussels, and then at Ampleforth College, then worked in the family wine business until he was clothed in the Benedictine order at Ampleforth in 1923, his abbot giving him the name of Columba. In 1927 he matriculated at Oxford to study at the university's Benedictine foundation, St Benet's Hall. After graduating in 1930, Cary-Elwes studied theology at Blackfriars, London, until 1933, when he was ordained a priest. He then returned to Ampleforth, serving in several capacities.

In 1951, he was appointed Prior of Ampleforth, and in 1955, was selected to be the founding prior of the Priory of Saints Louis and Mary (later Saint Louis Abbey) in St. Louis, Missouri, where he served until 1967. Columba left in 1968 for East Africa to conduct spiritual retreats and inquire about establishing a monastic foundation in that region. During 1969, he taught at a major seminary in Nairobi. In 1970, he served as French interpreter during the Pope's visit to Uganda, after which he returned to Ampleforth. In 1972, he joined the Benedictines of Glenstal Abbey, Ireland, to help establish a monastery in Eke, Nigeria, in 1974, where he served as Prior beginning in 1975.

Columba was a close friend of noted historian Arnold J. Toynbee, and educated several of his sons at Ampleforth. In 1986, their correspondence was collected in An Historian's Conscience. During this period he also helped to establish a Catholic seminary in Cameroon. He later returned to Ampleforth, but made ecumenical and spiritual renewal visits to Catholic communities and clerical establishments in the Philippines, Australia, India, and Chile. He was appointed the Titular Abbot of Westminster in 1992.

Source: Wikipedia