Frances Ball was born in Ireland in 1794, and educated at St. Mary’s Convent, a boarding school run by the members of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in York, England. She heard the unmistakable call of god: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His justice and all these things will be added unto you”..

At the age of twenty, Frances returned to York to enter Novitiate, preparing herself for the foundation of the Institute of Blessed Virgin Mary in Ireland. She professed her vows as Mother Teresa. In 1821 Teresa Ball established the first House of the Institute in Ireland and called it Loreto, the name by which all the subsequent schools, institutions originating from Ireland are still known.