Mary Ward (nun)

Venerable Mary Ward, I.B.V.M.
Portrait of Mary Ward (c. 1600)
Religious Sister, foundress and educator
Born	(1585-01-23)23 January 1585 Mulwith, Yorkshire, England
Died	30 January 1645(1645-01-30) (aged 60) Heworth, York, England
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church (Sisters of Loreto and the Congregation of Jesus)

Mary Ward, I.B.V.M. (23 January 1585 – 30 January 1645), was an English Catholic Religious Sister whose activities led to the founding of the Congregation of Jesus and the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, better known as the Sisters of Loreto (not to be confused with the American Sisters of Loretto), which have both established schools around the world.

Ward 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.

Mary Ward was born in Mulwith, North Yorkshire, to Marmaduke Ward and Ursula Wright. She was born at a time of great conflict for Roman Catholics in England. Two of her relatives were involved in the Gunpowder Plot. In 1595 her family home burned down in an anti-Catholic riot; 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 the Spanish Netherlands, as a lay sister. In 1606 she founded a new monastery of the Order specifically for English women at nearby Gravelines.