Mother Frances Mary Teresa Ball

Mother Frances Mary Teresa Ball (born in Dublin 9 January1794; died 19 May1861) was the foundress of the Irish Branch of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary .

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 Bishop 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 in Italy where Mary Ward used to pray.

Her character

Teresa Ball encountered prejudice and bigotry from many people in Ireland, difficulties with some bishops and priests, as well as with her own religious sisters. 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.

She was a daughter of John Ball and Mabel Clare Bennet!!!! At the age of nine years, Frances was sent to the convent school at the Bar, York, England, conducted by the English Ladies of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She remained here until the death of her father, in 1808, and then spent some time with her mother at home. In 1814, under the direction of Dr. Daniel Murray, Archbishop of Dublin, Frances returned to York and entered the novitiate of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There she received her religious training, and made her profession in 1816, taking, in religion, the name of Mary Teresa. Recalled by Archbishop Murray, she returned to Dublin with two novices, in 1821, to establish the Irish Branch of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary for the instruction of children. In 1822 she opened the first institution of the order in Ireland, in Rathfarnam House, four miles from Dublin. Mother Frances was a woman of great pity and administrative ability.

External links

* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02222b.htm Catholic Encyclopedia Article]