By Fr. Michael Martin

Fr. Mickey, as known to many, is a Columban priest assigned in Malate and is the author of the books Walking in Their Light and Remembering Fr. Niall O’Brien.

February has always been a special month for me in the Philippines: it is usually the coolest, and always the shortest month in the year; we priests would often take our local vacations during this month.

But February became even more special when I was assigned to Malate. So much Columban History was lived out there: in February 1945, all five Columban priests assigned to Malate Parish were killed in the Battle for Manila. Four of the Columban priests along with some twenty male parishioners who had taken refuge in the Church, were arrested and killed by the Japanese military on February 10. A fifth priest was killed three days later while working with the sick and the injured in Malate School, which had been transformed into a Hospital. He died from American shells which killed hundreds who had taken refuge in the school on that fateful day – February 13, 1945.

The youngest of the Columban priests who disappeared at the hands of the Japanese was Fr. Joseph Monaghan, an Irishman, who served in Malate Parish for more than ten years. He was appointed as the Malate-based Pastor of the special Parish for foreign residents in Manila. Energetic, young, and loved, it was he who brought the Legion of Mary to Malate.

Two of his nephews became Columban priests: Fr. Brendan McPolin who served in Korea where he died in 1981, and Fr. Damien McKenna who continues a lifetime of active ministry in Mindanao.

Columban Fr. Damien McKenna and cousin Dermot Monaghan, nephews of Columban martyr Fr. Joseph Monaghan

Another nephew, Dermot Monaghan, taught and lived in Canada for years. This February 2018, he was the special guest of his cousin, Fr. Damien, and the Columbans in Malate as he visited there and researched the life and death of his uncle, Fr. Joseph, a Malate martyr.

He was informed and deeply moved by the selection of war pictures in Malate Church’s Mission Exhibition. What he saw made him proud of his uncle who suffered and died with his people.

In 1997, Malate Parish erected a bronze PIETA shrine at the side of the Church in memory of the one hundred thousand people who were killed in February 1945, and their priests who stayed with them and died with them.

Dermot with Aling Saling, a parishioner in Malate

Dermot delighted in the vitality and the goodness of the people he met. He enjoyed visiting the Columban house in Singalong and seeing the spirit and the enthusiasm of the young men and women from diverse cultures there. He was also keen to see how the poor survived in their poverty and congested housing, and delighted just to experience the warm welcome extended to him. Their welcome was especially warm when they learned about his uncle’s life and death in Malate.

Dermot’s visit refreshed our memories of the sacrifices made by our ancestors in faith, while also reminding us of the horror and the insanity of war.