Venerable Mary Ward

Mary Ward, IBVM CJ (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. There is now a network of around 200 Mary Ward schools worldwide. Ward was declared venerable by Pope Benedict XVI on 19 December 2009. Mary Ward was born Joan Ward in Mulwith, West Riding of Yorkshire, the first child to Marmaduke and Ursula Wright Ward (Ursula's second marriage), and took "Mary" as her confirmation name. It is postulated that Ward was of noble descent. Marmaduke of Givendale was also head of the manor in Mulwith and Newby, and Mary can include Joan Ward, Prioress of Esholt as one of many notable ancestors, the Warde arms being bestowed in the early 9th century by Ecgberht, King of Wessex "for assisting him against the other six kingdoms". She was born at a time of great conflict for Roman Catholics in England. From 1589–1594 she lived with and was educated in Latin by her maternal grandmother, Ursula Wright, at Ploughland Hall, Welwick, who had been imprisoned for fourteen years for the "exhalation of the Catholic religion." Relatives Lady Constable, Lady Babthorpe and Lady Ingleby had also been imprisoned by the Earl of Huntingdon. It is documented, through John Jackson (b.1581) that Mary was at Ripley Castle, home of relative Sampson Ingleby, steward to the Earl of Northumberland for a brief time in 1594. In 1595 her family home at Mulwith was burnt down in an anti-Catholic riot; the children, who were praying, were saved by their father. They went to live at the family's manor house, Newby until due to further anti-catholic sentiment they were forced to move again. Mary took first Communion in Harewell, under the care of Mrs Ardington, daughter to Sir William Ingleby of Ripley, on 8 September 1598.