In a scholarly but accessible fashion, these essays - taken from the first Glenstal history conference - celebrate and explore the stories of these Irish Benedictines over a period of 1400 years. their following ‘the path of the Lord’s commands’ brought them across Dark Age Europe, through Reformation England and war-torn Europe and into modern Africa. In exile and persecution they established centres of learning and refuge; returning to Ireland they continue to devote themselves to these activities, seeking to glorify God in all things.

Glenstal Abbey is a Benedictine community located in Murroe, Co Limerick. The Abbey was founded in 1927 from Maredsous in Belgium and became the first male Benedictine community in Ireland since the reformation. It was founded in memory of abbot Columba Marmion, a Dublin priest, who became Abbot of Maredsous in 1909 and did in 1923. The community runs a guest house, farm and boarding school for boys