A Nun, a Convent, and the German Occupation of Belgium

"In the format of a diary, Mother Marie Georgine's account of the tribulations and antagonisms endured by her community of Ursuline nuns in German-occupied Belgium during the First World War is a document of considerable historical significance. The reader moves swiftly into the mind-set of this convert Englishwoman, her Christian subscription always preponderant. Professor Kollar has provided unintrusive editorship in bringing to light the often valiant role nuns played under military occupation."

--V. Alan McClelland, Emeritus Professor, Hull University



"There are, as Rene Kollar points out in his helpful introduction to this book, several accounts by nuns of Germany's invasion of Belgium in 1914, and the atrocities committed by the advancing forces. None, however, are as vivid, or as complete, as the diary of Mother Marie Georgine, the very British Isoline Jones, which Father Kollar has meticulously edited and annotated. This is a very useful addition to the literature on World War I."

--Michael John Walsh, author of Every Pilgrim's Guide to Rome



"This edition of Mother Mary Georgine's diary for 1914-18 adds an evocative and beguiling account to the burgeoning literature of the Great War in its centenary years. Personal and closely observed, the narrative of this English Ursuline working and living throughout the war years in a Belgian convent at Tildonk in Brabant provides an unusual firsthand account of war and occupation: from a convent not from the battlefield. The First World War respected no boundaries, and its impact on Belgium--the neutral country at the heart of the war's darkness--comes to life vividly in this memorable miniature."

--Dom Aidan Bellenger, Abbot Emeritus, Downside Abbey