• 1585

  Mary Ward was born on 23 January in Yorkshire, England. Her parents were Ursula Wright and Marmaduke Ward.
  

• 1585-1590

  Mary lived with her parents at Mulwith until she was five years old.
  

• 1590-1594

  Until she was nearly ten years old Mary lived with grandparents, Robert and Ursula Wright, at Ploughland Hall, East Riding, Yorkshire. Her grandmother taught her Latin and Mary read the Fathers of the Church. When her grandfather died, Mary returned to her parents.
  

• 1595-1597

  Mary lived with her family. She had three younger sisters and two younger brothers. When Mulwith was burnt in 1595 the family moved to Newby.
  

• 1597-1598

  The family moved to Northumberland and Mary lived with Mrs Ardington of Harewell. She made her first Communion there on 8 September 1598.
  

• 1599-1606

  Mary lived with relatives, the Babthorpe family, at Osgodby. With her cousins Mary was educated by tutors and learnt Latin, French, Italian and German. In 1605 Edmund Neville became a suitor for Mary’s hand in marriage.  She refused him and declared her desire to be a religious.

• 1606

   Mary travelled from England to Calais and then to St. Omer. Mary became an extern Sister in a Convent of Poor Clares (Franciscans).

• 1607

   Mary left the Poor Clares.
  
  

• 1607-1608

  Mary established a convent for English Poor Clares at Gravelines, in the province of Flanders.

• 1609

  Mary understood that she was not called to be a Poor Clare and left the convent she had founded. Mary returned to London and visited Catholics in hiding and in prisons. She received the ‘Glory Vision’ by which she understood that she was not to be a Carmelite but was called to another vocation ‘to the glory of God’.
  

• 1609-1615

  Mary and companions lived at St Omer. She made several visits to England and procured a house in London. In October 1615 she had the illumination called ‘The Vision of the Just Soul’
  

• 1610

   Mary returned to St Omer with some companions. They began to teach English girls who went there seeking refuge from the persecution of Catholics in England.
  

• 1611

   Mary had a vision of the spiritual foundation of her Institute. The words she understood were, ‘Take the same of the Society’ (that is, of the Society of Jesus - the Jesuits).
  

• 1615

   Mary sent recommendatory letters from Bishop Blaes, Bishop of St Omer, to Pope Paul V. The Pope praised their work, commanded Bishop Blaes to have care of them, and promised the possibility of her Institute being confirmed.
  

• 1616

   Mary went to take the healing waters at Spa and to investigate the founding of a house in Liege.
  

• 1617

   House in Liege was founded. Bishop Blaes sent a pastoral letter in praise of them. Mary went again to England and returned to establish the novitiate at Liege.
  

• 1618

   Mary made another visit to England and was captured and condemned to death without trial. Fine money was paid by friends and Mary was released.
  

• 1619

   Mary returned to St Omer and Liege. Sisters Praxedes and Mary Alcock disputed her leadership. Both soon died.
  

• 1620-1621

  Mary founded houses at Cologne and Treves.
  

• 1621

  Mary and four sisters made their first journey to Rome, arriving on Christmas Eve. Mary had an audience with Pope Gregory XV, seeking approbation for her Institute.
  

• 1622-1623

  A school in Rome was founded and Barbara Ward, Mary’s sister, died.
  

• 1623

  A school in Naples is opened.
  

• 1625

  Another house opened in Perugia. In August the Roman school was forced to close, but the nuns were allowed to stay.
  

• 1626-1627

  Mary made foundations in Northern Europe at Munich, Vienna and Pressburg.
  

• 1628-1630

  Mary made another journey to Rome where she pleaded for approbation of the Institute from the next Pope, Urban VIII.
  

• 1630

  The northern houses of Liege, Cologne and Treves were suppressed and the schools closed.
  

• 1631

  On 13 January the Bull of Suppression came out and all houses were disbanded, but Sisters could stay in Paradeiser House in Munich. From there Mary was taken and imprisoned in the Anger convent as a‘heretic’. She was in prison from 7 February until 14 April.
  When freed by order of Pope Urban VIII, although she was very ill, Mary travelled again to Rome to plead her innocence.
  

• 1632

  Mary was acquitted of heresy.
  

• 1632-1637

  Mary lived in a house near St Mary Major’s in Rome.
  

• 1637

  Mary left Rome again to travel to England. It was a long journey because of the war (the ‘Thirty Years War’) in Europe.
  

• 1639

  Mary arrived in London and worked with Catholics there. They were unable to open a school at that time.
  

• 1642

  Because of the war between the King, Charles I, and the Parliament, the Sisters were forced to travel north into Yorkshire.
  

• 1644

  The siege of the city of York forced them to move inside the city. They later returned to the countryside of Heworth.
  

• 1645

  On 30 January Mary Ward died peacefully surrounded by faithful companions. She was buried in the small cemetery (Anglican) of the church of Osbaldwick near Heworth. On her tombstone they chiselled the inscription:
  To love the poor, persevere in the same, live die and rise with them was all the aim of Mary Ward who having lived 60 years and 8 days died 20th [sic] January 1645.
  

Mary Ward had an incredible gift of being able to imagine and risk to begin something other than what had always been.