Loreto Legacy: The Spirit of Service and Giving

"Women in time to come will do much."

– Mary Ward (1585-1645)

“Happiness consists not in what you can get, but in what you can give”

– Mahatma Gandhi

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

– Helen Keller

"Increased responsibility goes with increased ability, for 'of those to whom much is given, much is required'."

– John F. Kennedy

“Do good and do it well.”

– Mary Ward

"We want deeper sincerity of motive, a greater courage in speech and earnestness in action."

– Sarojini Naidu

"Life is given to us, we earn it by giving."

– Rabindranath Tagore

The History of Mary Ward

The Loreto Order was founded by Mary Ward (1585-1645), a dynamic English Catholic at a time when Catholics were being persecuted in England. Europe was being torn by religious dissension and women’s rights did not exist.

At the time, Catholics were not allowed to practice their faith freely or openly and if they did so, they risked suffering the gravest consequences, including imprisonment and even death. Women in the Catholic church were strictly bound by rules of enclosure, which did not allow them to leave their convents or monasteries and move freely. However, Mary Ward did not find herself called to the contemplative life and instead decided to dedicate herself to an active ministry, whilst still being religious.

 

Unfulfilled in her dream of starting an independent, self-governing congregation of religious women patterned after the Jesuits, Mary Ward sailed to Europe to enter the monastery of Poor Clares in northern France. At the age of 24, she found herself surrounded by a band of devoted companions determined to work under her guidance to address new needs.

Mary Ward and her companions had taken the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and were living a communal life together. They were ministering to the spiritual needs of their fellow Catholics under the most dangerous of conditions. They ministered to prisoners, the poor, the sick and the dying. This necessitated a certain mobility that earned them the name of “the galloping girls”.

 

The idea of religious women being allowed to move about freely and go into places such as poor neighbourhoods and prisons was considered preposterous at the time. The desire to live this way as mobile apostolic women religious would meet significant resistance from church authorities. It would lead to very great personal suffering for Mary herself and a lifelong struggle to gain canonical recognition for her Institute and its way of life.

Three times she and her companions walked to Rome from Flanders, over the Alps, twice to try to gain this approval and the third time as a prisoner of the Inquisition following the suppression of her congregation by Pope Urban VIII in 1631. During this period she founded houses and schools in St. Omer, Liège, Trier, Cologne, Rome, Perugia, Naples, Munich, Vienna and Pressburg (Bratislava), often at the request of the local rulers and bishops, but Papal approval eluded her. 

 

Had she been prepared to compromise and accept a form of enclosure Mary might have obtained Papal approval. However, she would not compromise and preferred to face imprisonment, the imputation of heresy and disgrace, rather than abandon her conviction that “there is no such difference between men and women that women may not do great things … and I hope in God it will be seen, that women in time to come will do much.” 

Summoned to Rome in 1632 to face charges, Mary was granted an audience with the Pope. No trial ever took place, but Mary Ward was forbidden to leave Rome or to live in community. 

 

In 1637, for reasons of health Mary was allowed to travel to Spa and then on to England. She died during the English Civil War just outside York on 30 January 1645. She is buried in the Anglican churchyard of Osbaldwick just outside York.

Although her ideas were suppressed, Mary Ward’s work was not destroyed. Later congregations of women looked to her for inspiration. Her ideas and work revived gradually and developed, following the general lines of her vision.

In 1877 the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary was at last approved by the Church with certain reservations. In 1909 Mary Ward was at last recognised as the foundress of two religious institutes – the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also known as the Loreto sisters, and the Congregation Jesu – by the Holy See.

"Women in time to come will do much."

IBVM is now an international, multicultural Institute living and working in many different lands and cultures. Should you be traveling around the world, you will find it on 5 continents in 22 countries. The administrative centre is at Casa Loreto in Rome, Italy.

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