Frances Ball

Who was Frances Ball?

Frances Ball, called Mother Frances Mary Theresa, was the daughter of a wealthy merchant of Dublin, where she was born 9 January 1794.

In her twenty-first year she joined the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Micklegate Bar convent, York. This sisterhood, which had long existed at 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. Frances Ball introduced this institute into Ireland in 1821, and since then it has spread to most of the British colonies, where the nuns are usually called Sisters of Loreto.

Before her death, which occurred at Rathfarnham Abbey, 19 May 1861, she founded thirty-seven convents in various parts of the world.