Saint Ignatius of Loyola

Priest, Founder of the Society of Jesus
(1491–1556)

Saint Ignatius of Loyola was born in 1491 at the castle of Loyola in the Basque country of Spain, the youngest of thirteen children of a noble family. He grew up in the chivalric culture of late medieval Spain, dreaming of knightly glory and the favour of great ladies, and he entered the service of the Duke of Najera as a courtier and soldier. In 1521, during the siege of Pamplona, a French cannon ball shattered his right leg, and he was carried back to Loyola to convalesce, his dreams of military glory apparently at an end.

During the long convalescence he asked for books of chivalry to pass the time but was given instead the Life of Christ by Ludolph of Saxony and a collection of lives of the saints. As he read he noticed that when he thought of worldly pursuits he felt pleasure during the reading but emptiness afterward, while when he thought of imitating the saints the pleasure and the peace lasted. This observation was the seed of what would become the Ignatian discernment of spirits, the careful attention to the movements of consolation and desolation in the soul as indicators of God's will.

He underwent a profound conversion, went on pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady at Montserrat, hung up his sword before her image, and spent time as a beggar at Manresa, where he had the mystical experiences that would form the basis of his Spiritual Exercises. He then made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, returned to Spain to study, and eventually came to Paris, where he gathered the first companions of what would become the Society of Jesus: Peter Faber, Francis Xavier, Diego Lainez, Alfonso Salmeron, Nicholas Bobadilla, and Simon Rodriguez.

The Society of Jesus was formally approved by Pope Paul III in 1540. Its distinctive characteristics, a long and rigorous formation, adaptability in apostolic methods, special obedience to the Pope, and no obligation of common prayer in choir, made it a new kind of religious order perfectly suited to the needs of the Counter-Reformation Church. Under Ignatius's leadership it grew rapidly, establishing schools, missions, and theological centres throughout Europe and beyond. Francis Xavier carried the faith to India and Japan; Jesuit missionaries worked in China, Africa, and the Americas. Ignatius died in Rome on July 31, 1556. He was canonised in 1622 and his feast is celebrated on July 31st.