Mary Ward

At the end of 1609, joined by a small group of faithful companions (among whom were Mary Poyntz, Winefrid Wigmore, Jane Browne, and Catherine Smith), Mary Ward returned to Saint-Omer to found a community. In 1610, they opened a first boarding school intended for the education of young English girls in exile. Inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Mary Ward made the revolutionary decision to adopt the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus for her foundation. She wished to create an institute of active, mobile religious women, without strict monastic enclosure, entirely devoted to the education of girls and the defense of the faith. This model, patterned after that of the Jesuits, stood in direct opposition to the decrees of the Council of Trent, which imposed strict enclosure on all female religious communities. Despite intense ecclesiastical opposition and the mockery of those who labeled her companions as "Jesuitesses," the institute developed rapidly. Between 1616 and 1628, Mary Ward and her sisters opened colleges and communities in Liège, Cologne, Trier, Munich, Vienna, Pressburg (Bratislava), Rome, Naples, and Perugia.

Faced with growing criticism from the Roman Curia, Mary Ward traveled to Rome on foot several times to submit her project to successive popes and defend the legitimacy of her mission. However, her ideal of an apostolic and autonomous female congregation was deemed too far ahead of its time. On January 13, 1631, Pope Urban VIII promulgated the bull Pastoralis Romani Pontificis, ordering the suppression of the institute. Mary Ward was arrested in Munich and imprisoned for several weeks at the local Poor Clares convent under the accusation of heresy and rebellion against ecclesiastical authority. Once released, she traveled to Rome again in 1632 to plead her case. Received in an audience by Urban VIII, she declared to him: "Most Holy Father, I am not and have never been a heretic," to which the Pope replied: "We believe it, we believe it." Although the Inquisition recognized her orthodoxy and her lack of fault against the faith, the suppression of her work remained in effect. Mary Ward was forced to remain under surveillance in Rome until 1637, when she was authorized to travel to attend to her declining health.

Mary Ward returned to England in 1639 and settled with a few companions in Heworth, near York. She died there on January 30, 1645, in the midst of the English Civil War. She was buried in the churchyard of the Anglican church of Osbaldwick. After her death, her companions quietly maintained her legacy. The institute was gradually reborn: in 1703, Pope Clement XI approved its rules of life, and in 1877, Pope Pius IX officially confirmed the congregation under the name of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (IBVM). It was not until 1909 that Pope Pius X finally authorized the Church to officially recognize Mary Ward as the true founder of the institute. The cause for canonization was officially opened in 1929. On December 19, 2009, on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the founding of the institute, Pope Benedict XVI signed the decree recognizing the heroic nature of her virtues, proclaiming her venerable. In November 2025, the two branches stemming from her foundation—the Congregatio Jesu (CJ) and the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (IBVM, Loreto Sisters)—officially merged under the single name of Congregatio Jesu, thus realizing, more than four centuries later, their founder's dream of unity.

Mary Ward's spirituality is deeply rooted in the Ignatian tradition: to seek and find God in all things, to act for His greater glory, and to cultivate a total inner freedom combined with sincerity and justice. She had an unwavering confidence in the role and dignity of women within the Church, asserting in particular that there was no such difference between men and women that the latter could not accomplish great things. Today, her legacy endures throughout the world through the Congregatio Jesu. The network of Loreto and Mary Ward schools includes approximately 200 educational institutions spread across more than forty countries, continuing her educational and apostolic mission among the younger generations.