Mary Joseph Butler First Irish Abbess of the Irish Benedictine
Abbey of Our Lady of Grace, at Ypres, Flanders, b. at Callan,
County Kilkenny, Ireland, in Dec., 1641; d. at Ypres, 22 Dec.,
1723. Sent to be educated under the care of her aunt, Lady
Abbess Knatchbull of the English Benedictine Dames at Ghent, she
petitioned, when twelve years old, to be received into the
order, a request granted two years later. She made her religious
profession 4 Nov., 1657 at the English Benedictine convent at
Boulogne, at the age of sixteen. In 1665 the mother-house of
Ghent made another foundation, at Ypres, with Dame Beaumont as
abbess, but as the house did not thrive under her auspices, it
was decided, upon her death in 1682, to convert the house at
Ypres into a national foundation for the Irish Benedictine nuns
of the various houses founded from Ghent. Dame Butler
accordingly was sent to Ypres in 1683, and, on the death of the
second abbess, in 1686, was elected Abbess of the Irish Dames of
Ypres, 29 August. Soon after he