Frances Mary Teresa Ball

Mother Frances Mary Teresa Ball (born in Dublin 9 January 1794; died 19 May 1861) was the foundress of the Irish Branch of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (IBVM).

Early life

Frances Ball was born into a wealthy Dublin family. Catholicism was still suppressed in Ireland at this time. She was therefore sent to England at the age of nine to the Bar Convent in York, which was an IBVM school, although Mary Ward was not acknowledged as the foundress. In these times students did not return home for Easter, Christmas or summer holidays. They stayed at the school, and lived like religious people, until they left school, usually in their late teens.

Her calling

Frances returned home to Dublin at the age of sixteen. She was youthful, talented, had a striking presence and personality, and was much sought after by eligible young men. Frances was expected to make an admirable wife for the son and heir of some rich Catholic Dublin merchant family. At her debutante ball, a fashionable and lively occasion, she realised that she did not belong in the ballroom or in the life it represented. God was calling her to dedicate her life completely to his service. He wanted her to be a nun.

With the support of the Archbishop of Dublin, who hoped that she would set up an IBVM community in Dublin, Frances returned to York to enter The Bar Convent, where she took the religious name of Teresa. Mother Teresa Ball returned to Dublin in 1823 to start her work of setting up in Irish branch of the Institute, which she called Loreto sisters after the shrine at Loreto, Marche in Italy where Mary Ward used to pray.

Her character

Her natural reserve was allied with a natural authority: she was only eighteen years old when told by Archbishop Murray that she was to be the head of a new religious congregation, and twenty-seven when she returned to Ireland as superior of the Irish branch of the IBVM.

Loreto schools

It has never been fully explained why Mother Teresa decided to name her convent Loreto House, or rather, to use her own spelling, Loretto House, an error which remained uncorrected for many years. The town of Loreto in Italy holds a famous relic, an old house which is said to be the house where the Holy Family lived in Nazareth. According to the local tradition, it was carried to Loreto by angels in the year 1295 to protect it from destruction by the Saracens. The Holy House of Loreto became one of the great pilgrimage centres of mediaeval Italy and devotion to Our Lady of Loreto was commended by many popes and saints. The devotion of Mary Ward to the shrine at Loreto is well documented.

The first of many Loreto schools began at Rathfarnham Abbey in Dublin. For almost forty years after bringing the IBVM to Ireland Teresa Ball established a wide network of convents and schools across Ireland, as well as in India, Mauritius and Canada. She died in 1861 after a long and painful illness.

See also

• Loreto School

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia Article

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company. 

Persondata
Name	Ball, Frances
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	9 January 1794
Place of birth
Date of death	19 May 1861
Place of death