sent not only a religious Order, but the
national ideal as well. They stand for Faith and Fatherland.
More than two hundred years ago an Irish Benedictine Community
of Nuns was established in Big Ship Street, Dublin. Then came
the war of the "Revolution" and the renewal of the international
struggle between England and Ireland....

The Dutchman whom the English made King offered security to the
Irish Benedictine Nuns, should they elect to remain in their own
land; but, as if visions of the future passed before them, they
trusted him not. They sought an asylum beyond the seas, where,
amid the vicissitudes of fortune, they ever turned their
thoughts to Ireland, and in the days of her agony ceased not to
pray for her redemption.

They took up their abode in Belgium; they made Ypres their home;
and their convent, in its turn, became the refuge of many Irish
exiles driven by injustice and oppression from the land of their
birth. Wars swept over Europe. Belgium was desolated, even as
she has been desolated to-day. Irish soldiers, too, played their
part in those wars as they play their part in the struggle which
is now convulsing the world--the part of valour and renown.

Fifteen years after the Irish nuns had settled in Ypres a great
battle was fought at the other extremity of Belgium, on the
famous field of Ramillies. In that fateful fight the Irish
Brigade, in the service of France, held the village of
Ramillies. The fight surged and raged around it, but the Irish
kept their ground. Two of the flags which they had taken from
the foe were deposited in the Irish Convent at Ypres, and a part
of one of these flags was preserved by the faithful Irish nuns
down to our own day....

Once more war clouds gathered over Europe. Once more Belgium
was fated to become the victim of calamities which she did not
provoke. The armies of Germany wantonly invaded her territory
and cruelly devastated her homes. Ypres was bombarded and
destroyed. The Irish Convent, often destined to escape the fury
of the storm, now perished in the general ruin. The charred
remains of its hospitable walls alone recall the historic
memories with which its name shall for ever be associated.

Penniless, bereft of everything except the hope and
determination to retrieve their fortunes, the nuns fled from
B