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Home / Awards / Servitor Pacis Award / 2004 THE SERVITOR PACIS AWARD RECIPIENTS 2004 - His Excellency Archbishop Michael Courtney Archbishop Michael Courtney was born on 5 February 1945 in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary (in the diocese of Killaloe), Ireland. He was educated in Nenagh Primary School, the Christian Brothers and Clongowes Wood College (1956-62). After studying economics and law for one year, he transferred to Rome where he studied for the priesthood and was ordained in 1968 for the Diocese of Clonfert. After ordination, he served as curate in various parishes of his diocese. He returned to Rome in 1976 for post-graduate studies, earning a Licentiate in Canon Law and a Doctorate in Moral Theology. He then entered the Pontifical Diplomatic Academy where he studied political science, international and diplomatic law, among other disciplines. In 1980, he was sent to the Pontifical Representation of the Holy See in South Africa and subsequently to Zimbabwe, Senegal, India, Yugoslavia, Cuba, Egypt and Special Envoy of the Holy See to the Council of Europe and allied Institutions in Strasbourg. He was ordained Bishop on 12 November 2000 in the Church of St. Mary of the Rosary, Nenagh, and made Archbishop of Eanach Dúin and appointed as Apostolic Nuncio to Burundi. Archbishop Courtney worked tirelessly for peace in Burundi and ultimately laid down his life in the service of God’s people, on 29 December 2003, when he was killed near the village of Minago south of Bujumbura. In his homily for the World Day of Peace in Saint Peter’s Basilica, His Holiness Pope John Paul II also commemorated Archbishop Courtney by saying: “For the Christian to proclaim peace is to announce Christ who is ‘our peace’ (Eph. 2:14); it is to announce his Gospel, which is a ‘Gospel of peace’ (Eph. 6:15); it is to call everyone to the happiness of being ‘peacemakers’ (cf. Mt 5:9; cf. Message for World Day of Peace, No. 3). Of the ‘Gospel of peace,’ Archbishop Michael Aidan Courtney, my representative as Apostolic Nuncio in Burundi, also was a witness. He was tragically killed … while he was carrying out his mission of dialogue and reconciliation. Let us pray for him, … that his example and supreme sacrifice may bring fruits of peace in Burundi and in the world” (cf. Pope’s homily, 1 January 2004, n.3).
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