WARD
551
WARD
Wadding, Scriptores Ord. Min. (Rome, 1650); Joannes a
S. Antonio, Bibliolheca Vnh. Franciscana (Madrid, 1732);
CoLGAN. Acta SS. Hibernia (Louvain, 1645), preface; Sir James
Ware's Works, ed. Harris (Dublin, 1764); Irish Ecd. Record.
VII (Dublin. 1S70); Webb, Comp. Ir. Biography (Dublin, 1878);
O'CuBRY, Lectures on MS. Materials of Ancient Irish History
(Dublin, 1861) ; Annals of the Four Masters, ed. O'Donovan, I
(Dublin, 1857), preface; O'Hanlon, Lives of the Irish Saints, I
(Dublin, 1875), introduction; de Buck, L^archiologie irlandaise
au couvent de S. Antoine de Padoue d Louvain (Paris. , 1869).
MSS. in Burgundian Library, Brussels; St. Isidore's, Rome;
Franciscan Convent. Dublin.
Gregory Cleary.
Ward, James Harman, commander U. S. Navy; b. in Hartford, Conn., 1806; killed in attack on Mat- thias Point, Va., 27 June, 1S61. He was the first Union naval officer to fall in the Civil War. One of the founders of the United States Naval Academy under its present system, his books on naval science had an important effect on the modern development of the service. He was a convert to the Catholic Faith, and his funeral from St. Patrick's chuich, Hartford, was made the occasion of a memorable war-time demonstration. Educated at the Vermont Military Academy, and at Trinity College, Hartford, he was appointed a midshipman in the na\Y 4 Maich, 1823, and promoted lieutenant 3 March, 1831. In this rank he sei'ved several years on the coast of Africa and there compiled his "Manual of Naval Tactics" (1858). He gave a course of lectures on gunnery in Philadelphia in 18-12, and urged the establishment of the naval school, in which, when it was opened, he was an instructor (1845-47). His series of lectures, "Elementary Instruction on Naval Ordnance and Gunnery", attracted much attention, as did also his book "Steam for the Million". In 1853 he was promoted commander, and in 1857 appointed to the charge of the receiving ship "North Carolina" at the Brooklj-n Navy Yard. When the Civil War broke out he was called to Washington to counsel the navy dejjartment, and organized the Potomac flotilla, of which he was given command 16 May, 1861. In directing its operations against the batteries the Con- federates had erected along the river banks he was killed at Matthias Point.
FrREY in U. S. Cath. Hist. Soc. Historical Records and Studies (New York, 1912); Annual .4m. Cycl. (New York, 1861), 748; Cyclo. Am. Biog., a. v.
Thomas F. Meehan.
Ward, Margaret, Venerable, martyr, born at Congleton, Cheshire; executed at Tyburn, London, 30 Aug., 1588. Nothing is known of her early hfe except that she was of good family and for a time dwelt in the house of a lady of distinction named Whitall then residing in London. Knowing that WUham Watson, the priest who wrote the work known as the "Quodlibets", was imprisoned, she obtained permission to visit him. After several visits she disarmed the vigilance of the gaoler and furnished him with a cord wlicreby he could make his escape. At the appointed time the boatman whom she had engaged to convey the priest down the river refused to carry out his bargain, and in her distress she confided her difficulty to a young man, Ven. John Roche (or Neelc), who undertook to a.ssist her. He provided a boat and exchanged clothes with Watson, who made good his escape. But the clothes betrayed John Roche, and the rope convinced the gaoler that Margaret Ward had been instrumental in the flight of the prisoner. They were both arrested and loaded with irons. Ven. Robert Southwell wrote to Father Acquaviva, S.J.: "She wa,s flogged and hung up by the wrists, the tips of her toes only touching the ground, for so long a time tliat she w.is crippled and paralyzed, but these sufferings greatly strengthened the glorious martjT for her last struggle". She was tried and condemned at Newgate, her liberty being offered her if she would attend Protestant wor.ship.
Yepes. Historia Particular de la pcrsccucion de Inglnterra (1590); Challoneb. Memoirs of Missionary P'iests (London,
\7il-2);PotA.Bt>,Actsof English Martyrs (London, 1S91) ; Catholic
Record Society, V, 323, 327; The Month (Jan., 1879).
Edwin Burton.
Ward, Mart, foundress, b. 23 Jan., 1585; d. 23 Jan., 1645; eldest daughter of Marmaduke Ward and Ursula Wright, and connected by blood with most of the great Catholic families of Yorkshire. She entered a convent of Poor Clares at St-Omrr as lav sister in 1606. The fol- lowing year she founded a house for Englishwomen at Gravelines, but not fintling herself called to the con- templative life, she resolved to devote herself to active work. Al the age of twent\- four she found herself surrountl- ed by a band of devoted compan- ions determined to labour under her guidance. In 1609 they estab- lished themselves as a religious ^,^^^ ^^^^
community at c' ii
r, . ^ ^ , r rom an old engraving
St-Omer, and
opened schools for rich and poor. The venture was a success, but it was a novelty, and it called forth censure and opposition as well as praise. Her idea was to enable women to do for the Church in their proper field, what men had done for it in the Society of Jesus. The idea has been realized over and over again in modern times, but in the seventeenth century it met with little encourage- ment. Uneloistered nuns were an innovation repug- nant to long-standing principles and traditions then prevalent. The work of religious women was then confined to prayer, and such good offices for their neighbour as could be carried on within the walls of a convent. There were other startling differences between the new institute and existing congregations of women, such as freedom from enclosure, from the obligation of choir, from wearing a rehgious habit, and from the jurisdiction of the diocesan. Moreover her scheme was put forward at a time when there was much division amongst English Catholics, and the fact that it borrowed so much from the Society of Jesus (itself an object of suspicion and hostility in many quarters) increased the mistrust it inspired. Measures recognized as wise and safe in these days were untried in hers, and her opponents called for some pronouncement of authority as to the status and merits of her work. As early as 1615, Suarez and Lessius had been asked for their opinion on the new institute. Both praised its way of life. Lessius held that episcopal approbation sufficed to render it a rehgious body; Suarez maintained that its aim, organ- ization, and methods being without precedent in the case of women, required the sanction of the Holy See. St. Pius V had declared solemn vows and strict papal enclosure to be essential to all communities of religious women. To this law the difficulties of Mary Ward were mainly due, when on the propagation of her institute in Flanders, Bavaria. Austria, and It.aly, she applied to the Holy See for formal approbation. The Archduchess Is:ibella, (he Elector MaxinHli;in I, and the Emperor Ferdinand II had welcoiiicd the congregation to th(ir dominions, and together with such men .as Cardinal Federigo B()rromeo, Fra Domenico di OesCl, .and Father Mutio Vitelleschi, General of the Society of Jesus, held the foundress in
