After more than a decade and a half of founding and running missions in East Asia, the Columbans moved on to yet another country: the mysterious, ethnically diverse Southeast Asian nation of Burma (now known as Myanmar) in 1936.
In October 1936, two Columban Fathers, Patrick Usher and Bernard Way, traveled by ocean liner, riverboat and railroad to the Burmese capital of Rangoon (modern Yangon), and on to the city of Bhamo. Six other Columbans joined them later in the year.
The Columbans would focus their efforts in the new Burmese mission in northern Burma, particularly among the Kachin and Shan ethnic groups.
The storm clouds of World War II in the region loomed on the horizon, but a Columban mission had begun in a fourth Asian country.
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The Columbans are a society of missionaries, including priests and lay people, who minister to people of various cultures as a way of witnessing to the universal love of God.