Born July 17, 1884, at Saint Lawrence, Ky., Mary Magdalen was the daughter of William and Laura Higdon Montgomery. She entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph when she was 17 years of age. On March 19, 1902, after a three-month postulancy, Mary Magdalen received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Columba.
In her earlier years Sister Columba taught school in Kentucky at St. Romuald School at Hardinsburg, St James School at Louisville, and St. Charles School at Lebanon. In 1913, Sister Columba was assigned to Nebraska City, Neb., but after two months returned to Mount Saint Joseph where she remained for 64 years as Infirmarian in the Academy, caretaker of the rectory, priests’ dining room, and guest house, and in serving meals to visitors.
Sister Columba was confined to the infirmary in 1963, bedfast for many months. She died on November 27, 1977. At the age of 93, she was the oldest living member of the Mount Saint Joseph Ursulines. On November 29, her funeral Mass was celebrated by Msgr. Edward Russell, Father Anthony Ziegler, chaplain, and Father Bernard Barnes, OSM, who gave the homily. Sister Columba’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery. Among her survivors was her Ursuline niece, Sister Marie Montgomery. Her Ursuline sister, Sister Bernard, preceded her in death.