I hope in God it will be seen that women in time will do much"
2009 marks 400 years since Yorkshire woman Mary Ward (1585-1645) pioneered the first uncloistered religious order of women modelled on the freedom and mobility of the Jesuits. Born into a network of Catholic women who suffered persecution & imprisonment for their faith, including butcher's wife Margaret Clitherow, crushed to death for harbouring priests, she lost 3 uncles in the Gunpowder Plot & escaped to St. Omer in 1609 with a handful of women. The communities and educational work for girls they started spread across Europe, enemies calling them 'Galloping Girls' and 'Jesuitesses', while Mary Ward insisted, 'there is no such difference between men & women that women may not do great things'.
She crossed the Alps on foot 3 times in the midst of the 30 Years War and outbreaks of plague to gain papal approval of her new order, but Church and society were not ready for such innovations. She was arrested as a heretic in 1631, though this was later rescinded, around the same time as Galileo, & the order suppressed. A small remnant survived in York and overseas from which today Mary Ward's sisters of the Congregation of Jesus and the Institute of the Blessed Virgin originate and Communities all over the world continue to do groundbreaking work in educational and other fields.
The CJ and the IBVM opened this Jubilee Year with a celebratory Catholic Eucharist in York Minster by kind permission of the Dean and Chapter, followed by an 'open house' celebration at the Bar Convent, Blossom St.
Click here to see photographs and read testimonials from the day.
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You can also see more images on the Congregation of Jesus website by clicking here.
The Jubilee will continue for three years as it was in 1611 that Mary Ward was given the divine insight to "take the Same as the Society" (of Jesus) thus beginning her rootedness in Ignatian spirituality which is a hall mark of her followers today
- Religious and Lay.
More details of future events will follow in due course as plans progress.
Pilgrimage to Rome October 2009
Pilgrimage to Mount Grace 2010
Celebratory Mass in Westminster Cathedral Saturday January 23rd 2010
For information relating to celebrations and fundraising events at the Bar Convent please refer to Bar Convent Events.
For information relating to the Jubilee Heritage Project at the Bar Convent please click here. |
