Mary Ward was born on January 23, 1585 in Northumberland, north of York. She was the first daughter of Marmaduke Ward and Ursula Wright.
During her childhood, her family had to move constantly. Thus, Mary began her pilgrimage from one place to another at a very early age, which marked her life in such a special way that we could call her "the eternal pilgrim of God?s destiny".
She spent the last period of her childhood at her cousins?, the Bapthorpes. During the nearly seven years she spent there, the idea of a vocation to the religious life grew and matured within herself.
Mary knew that she would have to leave England in order to develop her vocation. As she was not particularly acquainted nor had she any means to get acquainted with any religious order, for persecution and heresy had scattered and suppressed religious communities, she decided to go into seclusion in some convent in the continent. She chose the Netherlands, as some other fellow countrywomen had d one before.
Once she had her father?s permission she left her homeland behind and headed for the unknown. It was in 1606. Her life was a lot of uncertainty at that time. The journey?s goal was Saint Omer, under the power of the Spanish Crown and ruled by Isabel Clara Eugenia, the favourite daughter of Felipe II, and Alberto of Austria. The proximity with Calais and the Catholic atmosphere mad e Saint Omer the ideal place for different religious orders to meet. Thus, she decided to found a convent of Clares for young English girls exiled from England. But soon things would change once again. On May 2nd 1606, God made her know that He required her service for a greater cause.
God did not call her to the contemplative seclusion of the cloister, but to hoist the flag and to recruit a group of women willing to participate actively in the defence of faith and the spreading of the Catholic Reformation. She returned to London, where she did all the good she could in a direct apostolate: with the poor, the rich, the sick, with those who needed her? and she found new horizons of service to the others, which so far had been unreachable for a woman. She started this way a new apostolic religious life
It was in this heroic atmosphere that Mary Ward?s vocation reached a full maturity. She understood the urgent need to found a female congregation which could easily move, without enclosure or monastic habits, and take care of the various tasks in the defence and promotion of faith, paying particular attention to the young.