Columba Stewart

Columba Stewart in 2015

Columba Andrew Stewart, OSB, (born July 16, 1957) is an American Benedictine monk, scholar, and the current executive director of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) in Collegeville, Minnesota. His principal scholarly contributions have been in the field of monastic studies—both Benedictine and Eastern Christian.[1]

Education

Stewart received his A.B. in History and Literature from Harvard University in 1979, magna cum laude. He earned his M.A. in Religious Studies at Yale University in 1981. After studying liturgical history, systematic theology, and Scripture at Saint John's University School of Theology, he earned his Doctorate of Philosophy from University of Oxford in 1989, writing his thesis on Greek and Syriac asceticism.[2]

Religious Life

Stewart speaking at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota

Stewart professed vows as a monk at Saint John's Abbey in July 1982. On June 8, 1990, he was ordained to the priesthood.[2]

Career

Stewart has been the executive director of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library since 2003. Working closely with international church leaders, governments and cultural organizations, Stewart has supervised the digitization of largely Christian manuscript collections from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and India. More recently, Stewart has also led initiatives focused on the digitization of Islamic manuscripts through his partnerships with libraries in the Middle East and Ethiopia. He also oversees the organization’s headquarters in Collegeville, Minnesota.[3]

Select bibliography

Stewart has published extensively on monastic, Benedictine, and linguistic topics, including dozens of articles and three books (listed below):

Cassian the Monk. Oxford University Press: New York, 1998. Translated into Rumanian and Polish; Italian translation in progress.

Prayer and Community: The Benedictine Tradition. Darton, Longman and Todd (U.K.) and Orbis Books (USA), 1998. Translated into Czech; Korean and Portuguese translations in progress.[2]

Stewart is a 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship awardee. The fellowship will support Stewart’s completion of a forthcoming book, Between Earth and Heaven: Interpreting the First Thousand Years of Christian Monasticism.[4]

Media exposure

Because of both his scholarly contributions and preservation work at HMML, Stewart has been featured in national radio programs, newspapers, and documentaries, including "Preserving Words and Worlds", "Ancient Christians in India", "A Monk Saves Threatened Manuscripts Using Ultramodern Means", "Codices Decoded", "In the Footsteps of the Apostles" "Monastery Works to Preserve Ancient Christian Texts", narrated by Fred de Sam Lazaro, who also produced and directed a 30-minute documentary on Stewart and HMML entitled, "Saving the Sacred." [5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Faith’s archivists. Catholic monks in Minnesota are helping to save a trove of Islamic treasures in Mali". The Economist. December 19, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 "Curriculum Vitae", Academia.edu.
  3. ↑ "A Monk Saves Threatened Manuscripts Using Ultramodern Means", The Chronicle, November 29, 2009.
  4. ↑ "Father Columba Stewart awarded 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship". HMML. Retrieved 2016-04-08.
  5. ↑ "HMML's Work to be Featured on Public Television Broadcast", Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, April 11, 2011.
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