Mary Ward (nun)

For other people named Mary Ward, see Mary Ward (disambiguation).

Ven. Mary Ward, I.B.V.M.
Ven. Mary Ward, I.B.V.M.
Religious Sister, Foundress and Educator
Born	23 January 1585(1585-01-23) Ripon, England
Died	30 January 1645(1645-01-30) Heworth, York, England
Honored in	Roman Catholic Church

The Venerable Mary Ward, I.B.V.M., (23 January 1585 – 30 January 1645) was an English Catholic Religious Sister who founded the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also known as the Loreto Sisters (not to be confused with the Sisters of Loretto). She was declared "Venerable" by Pope Benedict XVI on 19 December 2009; this is the first of three steps on the path to being declared a saint.^[1]

Biography

She was born to Marmaduke Ward and Ursula Wright. Mary's first word was "Jesus", which was a sign of things to come. Mary was born at a time of great conflict for Roman Catholics in England. She was born in Ripon and in 1595 saw her family home burned down in anti-Catholic rioting. As the home was burning, Mary and her sisters knelt down and prayed for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary; the children were saved by their father. In 1599 she moved to the house of Sir Ralph Babthorpe at Osgodby, Selby. It was there at the age of 15 that Mary felt called to the religious life. She entered a monastery of Poor Clares at Saint-Omer in northern France, then in Spanish Flanders, as a lay sister in 1606 and the following year she founded a new monastery of the Order for English women at nearby Gravelines.

Establishment of the Institute

However, she did not find herself called to the contemplative life and instead decided to dedicate herself to an active ministry, whilst still being a religious; this was considered most unusual at the time. At the age of twenty-four she found herself surrounded by a band of devoted companions determined to work under her guidance. In 1609 they established themselves as a religious community at Saint-Omer in northern France, and opened schools for girls.

Although the venture was a great success, it was still controversial at the time, and it called forth censure and opposition as well as praise. Her idea was to enable women to do for the Church in their proper field, what men had done for it in the Society of Jesus. The idea has been realized over and over again in modern times, but in the 17th century it met with little encouragement. As previous foundresses who attempted such a way of life (e.g., St. Angela Merici) had learned, uncloistered religious women were repugnant to long-standing principles and traditions then prevalent. At that time, the work of religious women was confined to prayer, and such work as could be carried on within the walls of a monastery.

There were other new startling differences between the new Institute and existing congregations of women; freedom from: enclosure, the obligation of choir, wearing a religious habit, and from the jurisdiction of the local bishop. Moreover her scheme was proposed at a time when there was division amongst English Catholics, and the fact that it borrowed so much from the Society of Jesus (itself an object of suspicion and hostility in many quarters) increased the mistrust. Measures recognized as acceptable in modern times were still novelties in hers, and her opponents called for a statement to be made by Church authorities. As early as 1615, the Jesuit theologians Francisco Suárez and Leonardus Lessius had been asked for their opinion on the new institute; both praised its way of life. Lessius held that local episcopal authorization sufficed to render it a religious body whereas Suárez maintained that its aim, organization, and methods being without precedent in the case of women, required the sanction of the Holy See.

Pope St. Pius V (pope from 1566–1572) had declared solemn vows and strict papal enclosure to be essential to all communities of religious women. To this law the difficulties of Mary Ward were mainly due, when on the propagation of her institute in Flanders, Bavaria, Austria, and Italy, she applied to the Holy See for formal approbation. The Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia, the Elector Maximilian I, and the Emperor Ferdinand II had welcomed the congregation to their dominions, and together with such men as Cardinal Federigo Borromeo, Fra Domenico de Gesù, and Father Mutio Vitya, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, held the foundress in great esteem. Paul V, Gregory XV, and Urban VIII had shown her great kindness and spoken in praise of her work, and in 1629 she was allowed to plead her cause in person before the congregation of cardinals appointed by Urban to examine the situation.

The "Jesuitesses", as her congregation was designated by her opponents, were suppressed in 1630. Her work however was not destroyed. The Empress Catherine the Great of Russia welcomed her educational innovations to her realm, and there Ward went, with the majority of her community. It revived gradually and developed, following the general lines of the first scheme. The second institute was at length approved as to its rule by PopeClement XI in 1703, and as an institute by Pope Pius IX in 1877.

At the express desire of Pope Urban, Mary went to Rome. It was there that she gathered around her the younger members of her religious family, under the supervision and protection of the Holy See. In 1639, with letters of introduction from Pope Urban to Queen Henrietta Maria, Mary returned to England and established herself in London. In 1642 she journeyed northward with her household and established a convent at Heworth, near York. She died in St.Mary's school.

After her death there, her companions thought it best not to bury her body near the city center where she died because of the dangers of desecration. Instead they sought somewhere less conspicuous and found a happy solution by arranging for her to be buried in the Osbaldwick Churchyard, about a mile away. There, as the record says, "the vicar was honest enough to be bribed"! Her burial on 1 February 1645 was also attended by Anglicans. Despite the persecution of Roman Catholics at the time, Mary Ward was much admired and revered by many local people.^[2]

The work of Mary Ward is celebrated in an exhibit in the museum of the Bar Convent in York.^[3] She was mentioned by Pope Benedict XVI during his UK visit.^[4]

Notes

1. ^ Promulgation of 19 December 2009
2. ^ [1]
3. ^ Museum and Archives, The Bar Convent, http://www.bar-convent.org.uk/museum_archives.htm, retrieved 16 October 2011 
4. ^ http://www.carmelite.org/index.php?nuc=news&func=view&item=287

Schools

• List of Loreto Colleges and schools
• Loreto Normanhurst Sydney NSW
• Loreto Marryatville, South Australia, Australia
• Loreto Kirribilli, New South Wales, Australia
• Loreto College Ballarat, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
• Loreto Mandeville Hall (Toorak), Victoria Australia
• Mother Mary Ward Elementary School, Brampton, Ontario, Canada
• Loretto Abbey C.S.S. (Toronto), Ontario, Canada
• Mary Ward Catholic Secondary School, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Loretto College (Toronto), Ontario, Canada
• Loreto Convent Tara Hall, Shimla
• Loreto Convent, Delhi
• Loreto College, Kolkata, India
• Loreto College Colerine, Northern Ireland
• Loreto College Swords, Dublin Ireland
• Loreto Grammar School, Altrincham (Greater Manchester, England)
• Loreto Convent College, Lucknow, India
• St.Mary's Convent Inter College,Lucknow, India
• Instituto de Educação Beatíssima Virgem Maria - IEBVM, São Paulo, Brazil
• Colégio Mary Ward, São Paulo, Brazil
• Escola Santa Maria, São Paulo, Brazil
• Instituto Sta. Maria, Antofagasta, Chile
• Instituto Sta. Maria, San Carlos, Chile
• Instituto Sta. Maria, Chillán, Chile
• St. Mary's High School, Katmandu, Nepal
• Colegio Bienaventurada Virgen María, San Sebastián, Spain
• Colegio Mary Ward, Barcelona, Spain
• Schmidt School for Girls /Schmidt-Schule, Jerusalem, Israel (maintained by the Archdiocese of Koln, Germany)

Bibliography and External links

• Kóhler, Mathilde: Maria Ward. Ein Frauenschicksal des 17. Jahrhunderts.Kósel Verlag, 1984
• Görres, Ida Friederike. Mary Ward. Trans. Elsie Codd. London: Longmans, Green: 1939.
• Sr. Ursula Dirmeier, CJ, ed., Mary Ward und ihre Gründung: Die Quellentexte bis 1645 (Mary Ward and Her Foundation. The Source Texts to 1645), 4 vols, 2007, Münster 2007, Corpus Catholicorum, vols. 45-48.
• Vol. 45 (Band 1), ISBN 9783402034590 ISBN 340203459X [2]
• Vol. 46 (Band 2), ISBN 9783402034606 ISBN 3402034603 [3]
• Vol. 47 (Band 3), ISBN 9783402034613 ISBN 3402034611 [4]
• Vol. 48 (Band 4) ISBN 9783402034620 ISBN 340203462X [5]
• Immolata Wetter, Bernadette Ganne, Patricia Harriss, Mary Ward Under the Shadow of the Inquisition 1630-1637, (Translation of: Maria Ward unter dem Schatten der Inquisition 1630-1637), Way Books, 2006, ISBN 0904717283, ISBN 9780904717280
• Margaret Mary Littlehales 'Mary Ward Pilgrim and Mystic' Burns and Oates, 1998 ISBN 0860122875
• Mary Ward: A Painted Life
• Mary Ward: Pioneer for Women in the Church
• Simmonds, Gemma. Recognition at Last
• Nigg, Walter: Mary Ward – Eine Frau gibt nicht auf. Römerhof Verlag, Zürich 2009. ISBN 978-3905894-03-5
• Oliver, Mary I.B.V
• 'Mary Ward: Dangerous Visionary'. A one-hour documentary telling the story of that “incomparable woman” Mary Ward (1585-1645) through the lens of the 21st century. www.marywarddocumentary.com Directed by Ciaran O'Connor and Produced by Sarah Mac Donald. [6]

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company. 

Persondata
Name	Ward, Mary
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	23 January 1585
Place of birth
Date of death	30 January 1645
Place of death

Scarlett Melican Scarlett Melican