INSTITUTE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. A religious order founded by an English lady, Mary Ward (1585-1645). Educated as a Roman Catholic, Mary Ward left England in 1606 and went to St. Omer. Here she entered the convent of the Colettines as a lay sister. In 1607. however, she left it with the idea of founding a similar convent for English ladies. With the intention of building a house under the rule of St. Clare (see POOR CLARES), she obtained from the Archduke Albert of Brussels a piece of ground at Gravelines. Meantime, she lived with the English ladies who had joined her in a hired house at St. Omer. After living for a time under the strict rule of St. Clare, she suddenly became persuaded that she had received a call to a somewhat different kind of work. In 1609 she left the Poor Glares. In course of time she became convinced that her vocation was to found a teaching order, " recruited from the ranks of her Catholic countrywomen, not cloistered, nor under obedience to any other order, but living under the rule of the Society of Jesus, and bound by terminable, not perpetual, vows" (Cath. Diet.). In 1611 therefore she
founded in England the first community of the " English Virgins." A few years later she established a similar community at St. Omer. Other establishments soon grew up in Italy, and at Liege and Munich. But the foundress was not exempt from persecution. On several occasions she had to flee from one country to another, and for a time her houses were closed by order of Pope Urban VIII. Afterwards, however, her Institute again met with hearty approval, and since the death of Mary Ward it has flourished greatly. It is said to do excellent work in educating girls of every class in Bavaria. Hun gary, Roumania, Italy, and other parts of the Continent. See the Cath. Dict.; the D.N.B.