INSTITUTE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY (ENGLISH LADIES). — Founded at St-Omer (Belgium) in 1609 by Mary Ward (q.v.), both for the education of English girls of the nobility who had emigrated or were destined to emigrate in order to pursue their studies in safety from persecution, and to carry out a missionary apostolate in their homeland against the “Reformation.” To achieve this aim, the Institute was required to have a character and way of life different from those of existing religious communities. Following the guidelines laid down in the Constitutions and methods of St Ignatius, Ward desired: 1) exemption from enclosure; 2) a Superior General for the entire Institute, who would depend solely on the Holy See and not on bishops or any religious Order; 3) the distinction of members into two classes: religious teachers and coadjutor sisters. These initiatives were boldly innovative for the time and brought much suffering and opposition.
Paul V granted (1616) benevolent protection, strongly recommending the institution to the Bishop of St-Omer; Gregory XV in 1623 granted Ward the faculty to open a house in Rome with public schools and free classes for the poor. Meanwhile, the Institute began to flourish with new houses in Liège, Cologne, Trier, Naples, Vienna, and Pressburg; but opposition intensified both because of the aforementioned innovations and because of the perceived excessive similarity to the Jesuits, interpreted as domination over the Institute. The opposition eventually convinced Urban VIII, who with the bull *Pastoralis Romani Pontificis* of 13 January 1630 suppressed the Institute, which then numbered about 200 religious of various nationalities, on the grounds that Ward “had appropriated every essential element of religious Orders without the Pope’s permission, had no enclosure, and claimed to exercise a kind of pastoral care, house-to-house, which was not fitting for a religious.” However, the bull said nothing against the educational apostolate, and Urban VIII himself granted Ward in 1632 permission to gather her religious again in Rome during her lifetime. Thus the Institute was able to continue as a teaching community and spread from Rome to England, Bavaria, and elsewhere. After a long wait, Clement XI approved its rules and the title of “Institute of the B.V.M.” on 13 June 1703. Benedict XIV, with a bull of 13 April 1749, confirmed the office of Mother General but forbade the Ward from being called the founder of the Institute. Pius IX on 15 February 1877 approved the Institute as such, and Pius X on 6 April 1909 declared that there was no further obstacle to the Institute publicly acknowledging Mary Ward as its founder.
At present the Institute, of pontifical right, is divided into five autonomous branches with their respective Superior Generals: Rome, 164 houses and about 4,000 religious, in Germany, England, Romania, Italy, India, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Spain, and North America; St. Pölten, 15 houses and 80+ religious, in Austria, Hungary, and Italy; Mainz, 10 houses and 352 religious, in Prussia and Hesse; Rathfarnham (Ireland), 68 houses and 1,456 religious in Ireland, Gibraltar, Spain, England, India, Africa, Australia, and Mauritius; Toronto (Canada), 20 houses and 472 members.