Loretto Abbey, Toronto, 1928

Photos and transcription by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted April, 2011

Here, in front of Loretto Abbey at 101 Mason Boulevard, near Yonge Street and Wilson Avenue, is a 1985 plaque erected by The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is what it tells us:

Plaque coordinates: 43.740694 -79.411140

Mary Ward (1585-1645) founded the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1609 to be an uncloistered community of religious women dedicated to the apostolate of teaching in the Christian context and to responding to the needs of the Church in every age. Numerous schools were soon opened in Catholic Europe and later throughout much of the free world.

The establishment made in 1686 at York, England, Mary Ward's homeland, led to the foundation at Rathfarnham, near Dublin, Ireland, in 1821. From there, at the invitation of Bishop Michael Power, five young women, known here as the Loretto Sisters, came to open a school in pioneer Toronto in September of 1847.

On May 22, 1928, Archbishop Neil McNeil of Toronto blessed the cornerstone of this new Loretto Abbey which would serve as both a school and a Motherhouse for the Institute in North America. Built in the Tudor Gothic style, the north wing and chapel were added in 1953.

This plaque was blessed and dedicated by His Eminence G. Emmett Cardinal Carter, Archbishop of Toronto, on Saturday, September 14 1985.

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