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Mary Ward
English Venerated Catholic (1585-1645)
SaintResearchedCongregation of JesusPost-1588
Feast: 24 January (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Born
23 January 1585
verified
Died
23 January 1645
verified
Beatified
—
not on record
Canonised
—
not on record
Who they were
Mary Ward, of a Yorkshire Catholic family, entered the Poor Clares at St-Omer in 1606 but felt called to active work. In 1609 she and her companions founded a community at St-Omer and opened schools for rich and poor.
She wished women to do for the Church what the Jesuits did, but uncloistered nuns were then a novelty and she met great opposition. She died at Heworth near York on 23 January 1645.
The miracles
The Catholic Encyclopedia does not describe her cause.
Why that counted as sanctity
A pioneer of women's religious life and education.
Sources
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - Mary Ward
- Wikidata Q291061 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Mary Ward (nun) (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.