Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (English Ladies)

INSTITUTE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY (ENGLISH LADIES). — Founded at St-Omer (Belgium) in 1609 WARD, MARY (v.), both for the education of English girls of the nobility, who had emigrated or were subsequently destined to emigrate in order to pursue their formation in safety from persecution, and for carrying out missionary activity in their homeland against the «Reformation». To achieve this purpose, it was required that the I. should have a character and a system of life different from those of the religious communities already in existence. Ward, following the principles laid down in the Constitutions and methods of s. Ignatius, desired: 1) exemption from enclosure; 2) a Superior General for the entire I., who would depend solely on the Holy See and neither on the Bishops nor on any religious Order; 3) the division of the members into two grades: the teaching Religious and the coadjutrix Sisters. Such initiatives took on, for those times, a character of bold innovation and were the cause of many hardships and contradictions.

Paul V granted (1616) benevolent protection, strongly recommending the institution to the bishop of St-Omer; Gregory XV in 1623 gave Ward permission to open a house in Rome with public schools and free classes for the poor. Meanwhile the I. began to prosper, with new houses in Liège, Cologne, Trier, Naples, Vienna, Pressburg; but opposition grew more bitter, both because of the aforementioned no-

both because of the innovations and because of the excessive resemblance to the Jesuits, interpreted as domination over the institution. The opposition finally convinced Urban VIII, who, by the bull Pastoralis Romani Pontificis of 13 January 1630, suppressed the I., which then numbered 200 religious of different nations, because Ward “had appropriated every essential element of the religious Orders without the Pope’s permission, had no enclosure, and claimed to exercise a kind of pastoral care, from house to house, which was not suitable for religious women.” The bull, however, said nothing against its educational activity, and Urban VIII himself allowed Ward in 1632 to gather her religious women together again in Rome, living in community. Thus the I. was able to continue as a teaching community and to spread from Rome and re-enter England, Bavaria, and elsewhere. After a long wait, Clement XI approved its rules and the title of “I. of the B. V. M.” on 13 June 1703. Benedict XIV, by a bull of 13 April 1749, confirmed the office of superior general, but prohibited Ward from being called the foundress of the I. Pius IX approved the I. as such on 15 February 1877, and Pius X declared on 6 April 1909 that there was no longer any obstacle to the I.’s publicly recognizing Maria Ward as its foundress.

At present the I., of pontifical right, is divided into five autonomous branches with their respective superior generals: Rome, 164 houses and approximately 4,000 religious women, in Germany, England, Romania, Italy, India, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Spain, and North America; St. Pölten, 15 houses and 804 religious women, in Austria, Hungary, and Italy; Mainz, 10 houses and 352 religious women, in Prussia and Hesse; Rathfarnham (Ireland), 68 houses and 1,456 religious women in Ireland, Gibraltar, Spain, England, India, Africa, Australia, and Mauritius; Toronto (Canada), 20 houses and 472 members.

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