Dame M. Columban

Dame M. Columban was a member of the Benedictine community known as the Irish Dames of Ypres, an Irish-affiliated abbey in Ypres, Belgium. In 1915, her book The Irish Nuns at Ypres: An Episode of the War was published in London by Smith, Elder & Co.; Project Gutenberg identifies her as “Columban, M., Dame,” and the book itself presents her as “D. M. C., O.S.B.” and a member of the community.

The book grew out of notes kept within the convent during the opening phase of World War I. In a note printed in the volume, the prioress says she asked Dame M. Columban to give a detailed account of what had happened to the community from the German arrival in Ypres to their safe arrival at Oulton Abbey. An editor’s preface describes her as a novice in literary work, but praises the force and realism of her narrative.

Because reliable biographical information about her life outside this book is scarce, she is best introduced through the work itself: a firsthand chronicle of religious life under threat, evacuation, and endurance. The wider history of the Ypres community later continued in exile, and the Benedictine nuns who had lived at Ypres eventually established themselves at Kylemore Abbey in Ireland.