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Martin Connell
Assistant professor, Saint John's School of Theology and Seminary/CSB/SJU Theology Department
A Reflection for Christmas 2002
During this holiday season, CSB/SJU highlights a faculty member who investigates the origins of the Christian calendar, including the beginnings of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany, about which, he says, "I care more than any healthy person should.” (See bibliography.) Dr. Martin Connell is in the middle of his fifth year at CSB/SJU, where he teaches at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. His research interests are concentrated on the first five centuries of Christianity and, in particular, on the way time measurement reflects what Christians believed then and today.
Martin’s classes during the year include Rites of Christian Initiation, Eucharistic Liturgy and Theology, The History and Sources of the Liturgy, Liturgical Year and How to Write and Pray Prayers for Worship.
Within the past several years, his main research interest was Christ’s descent to the dead, and he’s now writing a scholarly book on the liturgical year. He hopes to start an investigation of clothing in the New Testament when his book is finished.
Having majored in philosophy as an undergraduate, he switched to theology for his graduate work, concentrating in religious studies for a Master’s degree and in liturgical studies for a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame (1995).
The middle of three children, Martin is a big fan of his nieces and nephew, Kim, Krissy, Kelli and Kevin. He was born in Philadelphia and baptized there ten days later, two years before the beginning of Vatican II. “Since my mom and my dad were raised Catholic, I was baptized according to the old ritual and probably heard Mass in Latin before I received my First Communion, but I don’t have a conscious memory of that time. Too bad, really, because I might not have had to spend so much of my adult life learning Latin!”
An avid runner and swimmer, Martin is also a translator for the International Commission for English in the Liturgy (ICEL), a member of the Academic Budget and Planning Committee and the North American Academy of Liturgy (NAAL), as well as the advisor and tutor for the graduate knitting club. He was also the faculty advisor for the undergraduate lesbian and gay student group for several years.