Kilian McDonnell, OSB Biography
Kilian McDonnell, OSB, born in Great Falls, Montana in 1921, has been a monk/priest of St. John's Abbey, Collegeville, MN since 1945. For the larger portion of his life Kilian McDonnell has been active as a professional theologian, and a university professor. He received his StD from the theological faculty of Trier, Germany, and has taught in the graduate school of theology of St. John's University. He has been involved in theological ecumenical discussions nationally and internationally. Between 1972-1992 he served as the Catholic co-chair of the International Dialog between Classical Pentecostals and Roman Catholics. For some fifteen years he was a consulter to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the Vatican ecumenical office. He has been a member of the international dialogues with the Disciples of Christ, and with the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and of the national dialogues with the Lutherans and with the Presbyterians. In 1967 he founded and became the executive director of The Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research (renamed the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research in 2005). At the present he serves as its president. The Catholic Theological Society of America gave him the John Courtney Murray Award for distinguished contributions to theology and the church. He began writing poetry seriously at the age of 75.