A British nun who was dragged before the Inquisition for trying to promote women's rights 300 years before the Suffragettes is to be put on the road to sainthood by the Pope.Mary Ward was born into a devout Catholic family in Ripon, Yorkshire, in 1585 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I when Catholics were being persecuted.
She became a nun at 15, and a decade later founded her own order, the Institute of Mary. She went on to open convents across Europe.
But from an early age she was a vocal proponent of women's rights, particularly a right to education, which led to conflict with the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.
While in Germany in 1631 she was dragged before the Inquisition, the feared Church body charged with rooting out heretics.
Charged with heresy, schism and rebellion, she was jailed for three months and when freed was forced to comply with the Pope's order to shut down her order of nuns.
She died of natural causes in 1645 in York. Now Pope Benedict XVI is to declare her 'Venerable', the first of the three steps to sainthood.
Supporters of her cause will then have to find evidence of a miracle through her intercession for her to be named 'Blessed', and a further miracle for her to achieve sainthood.
‘It is absolutely wonderful,’ said Sister Gemma Simmonds, a lecturer in theology at Heythrop College, the University of London and a member of Mary Ward's order of nuns, which was re-instated 100 years after her death under a new name, the Congregation of Jesus.
‘Mary Ward was a very important pioneer in the history of the role of women in the Church.
‘I want justice for her. She was severely persecuted by the Church that she tried to serve so faithfully.
‘At a time when we are still trying to work out in concrete detail the role of women in the Church this would be a very welcome move.’
She said Ward also deserved particular recognition for setting up girls’ schools at a time when women everywhere were treated as second class citizens.
The move by the Pope, who was educated as a boy by sisters of Mary Ward’s order, comes after the cardinals of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints last week unanimously concluded that the nun lived a blameless life.
Today her order has about 4,000 sisters around the world.
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