Columba Murphy

Who is Columba Murphy?

Columba Murphy of Ireland, was a religious brother and later priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a religious institute of the Roman Catholic Church. He was one of the first Catholic missionaries to arrive in the Kingdom of Hawaii during the persecution by Kaahumanu, Kamehameha III and their Congregationalist church advisors. Murphy was sent to Hawaii by the apostolic prefect in Chile to evaluate the situation which the Roman Catholic Church had found itself in the Hawaiian Islands. Murphy ultimately became instrumental in the securing of religious freedom for Roman Catholics in Hawaii through the Edict of Toleration and the establishment of the Hawaii Catholic Church.