Osgodby is the village about 14 miles away from York, where Mary Ward spent six formative years of her life, aged 15-21, with the Babthorpe family, relatives on her mother’s side. It was a deeply Catholic household, in which Mary’s personal faith, spirituality and sense of vocation developed greatly.
Some years ago a group from the village came to see me in York to ask about Mary Ward’s part in their local history. I have visited them several times, most recently just before the Covid pandemic, to talk to a group of about 70 who wanted to know ‘the whole story of Mary Ward and her connection with Osgodby’.
This week they sent pictures of a new bench which they have set up not far from where Osgodby Hall, the Babthorpe house, used to stand– an imaginative way of presenting that story to villagers and others.
Sr. Patricia Harriss CJ
