page_title: Frances Mary Teresa Ball
section_title: Sisters of Loreto
hierarchical_section_title: Frances Mary Teresa Ball / Sisters of Loreto
caption_attribution_description: English: original digital image Suckindiesel 21:52, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
context_page_description: Mother Frances Mary Teresa Ball was the foundress of the Irish Branch of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
context_section_description: 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. In 1822 she opened the first institution of the order in Ireland, in Rathfarnam House, four miles from Dublin. Mother Teresa decided to call the house ’Loreto’ after the village in Italy to which the Nazareth house of the Holy Family was said to have been miraculously transported.
  Mother Frances was a woman of great piety and administrative ability. Her energies were devoted to the establishment of schools and to the development of the sisterhood which now has members in many countries. The first offshoot was planted in Navan, County Meath, in the year 1833. The year 1840 was marked by the erection of the first church in Ireland dedicated to the Sacred Heart, in Loretto Abbey, Rathfarnham. In addition to the boarding and day schools the sisters conduct orphanages. 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.
caption: Rathfarnham House, Loretto Abbey
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