Frances Ball

Frances Mary Teresa Ball, IBVM (9 January 1794 – 19 May 1861) was an Irish Catholic religious sister who founded the Irish branch of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, better known as the Sisters of Loretto.

Early life Frances Ball was born on 9 January 1794 in Dublin, Ireland to John and Mable Clare Bennet Ball; the youngest of six children. Her father was a wealthy silk weaver. Catholicism was still suppressed in Ireland at this time, although her brother Nicholas later became one of the first Catholic Irish judges. 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. This sisterhood, which had long existed in York, was originally established on the continent in the seventeenth century by Mary Ward to supply the means of a sound religious and secular education to young ladies. In these times students did not return home for Easter, Christmas or summer holidays but stayed at the school until they left, usually in their late teens.

In 1807, her eldest sister, Cecilia was professed at the Ursuline convent in Cork. Frances travelled from Dublin to Cork for the ceremony, where she met Mary Aikenhead. Cecilia Ball took the name of Sister Francis Regis and was within a few years made Superior of the convent in Cork.

Sisters of Loreto

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. They stayed with the Mary Aikenhead and the Irish Sisters of Charity in Stanhope Street while Rathfarnam House was being renovated. Her sister, Anna Maria helped her in the development of her schools, providing the funds for her to purchase the Loreto school on St Stephen's Green.

Loreto schools According to the local tradition, the house where the Holy Family lived in Nazareth was carried to Loreto, Italy, by angels in the year 1295 to protect it from destruction. The Holy House of Loreto became one of the great pilgrimage centres of mediaeval Italy. The devotion of Mary Ward to the shrine at Loreto is well documented.