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Ignatius Loyola

Ignatius Loyola Ignatius de Loyola was born in 1491 in Azpeitia in the Basque province of Guipuzcoa in northern Spain. He was the youngest of thirteen children. When Ignatius turned sixteen years old, he was sent to be a page to Juan Velazquez, the treasurer of the kingdom of Castile. Since he became one of the Velazquez households, he was often at court and he liked to be there, especially with the ladies. He became addicted to gambling and engaging in. In May of 1521, Ignatius was thirty years old. He was an officer defending the fortress town of Pamplona against the French, who claimed the territory as their own against Spain. The Spaniards were outnumbered and the commander of the Spanish forces wanted to surrender, but Ignatius convinced them to fight on for the honor of Spain, even if they did not win. During the battle, a cannon ball struck Ignatius’ leg, wounding one and breaking the other. The French soldiers admired his courage and carried him back to recuperate at his home, the castle of Loyola, rather than to prison. His leg was set but did not heal, so it was necessary to break it again and reset it. Ignatius grew worse and was finally told by the doctors that he should prepare for death. However, on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, which is June 29th, Ignatius took an unexpected turn for the better. During the long weeks of his recuperation, he was extremely bored and asked for some romance novels to pass the time. Since there were not any romance novels in the castle, Ignatius was given a copy of the life of Christ book, and a book about the saints. Since Ignatius had nothing else to do, he began to read the books. As he read the books, he felt he wanted to imitate the saints. However, that after reading and thinking of the saints and Christ he felt calm and at peace with himself. Through reading the books, it was the beginning of his experience of conversion. Once Ignatius was healed from his wounds, he decided to leave the castle in March of 1522. Ignatius decided that he wanted to live in Jerusalem where our Lord had spent his life on earth. First, he began his journey to Barcelona. Even though he converted from his old ways, he was still lacking the spirit of charity and Christian understanding. On the way to Jerusalem Ignatius met up with a Moor and they came together on the road, both riding mules, and they began to debate religious matters. The Moor claimed that the Blessed Virgin was not a virgin in her life after Christ was born. Ignatius took this to be such an insult that he was in a dilemma as to what to do. They came to a fork in the road, and Ignatius decided that he would let circumstances direct his course of action. The Moor went down one fork. Ignatius let the reins of his mule drop. If his mule followed the Moor, he would kill him. If the mule took the other fork, he would let the Moor live. Fortunately, for the Moor, Ignatius' mule was more charitable than its rider and took the opposite fork from the Moor. He proceeded to the Benedictine shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat, made a general confession, and knelt all night in vigil before Our Lady's altar, following the rites of chivalry. He left his sword and knife at the altar, went out and gave away all his fine clothes to a poor man, and dressed himself in rough clothes with sandals and a staff. Ignatius went towards Barcelona but stopped along the river Cardoner at a town called Manresa. He stayed in a cave outside the town. Ignatius planned on only staying in the cave for a few days but instead he stayed for ten months. Each day Ignatius spent hours praying and he worked in a hospice. While he was staying in the cave, he began to have ideas about The Spiritual Exercises. On the bank of the river Cardoner, he had a vision, which is the most significant part of his life. The vision was more of an enlightenment, in which he said he learned more on that one time than he did in the rest of his life. Ignatius never revealed exactly what the vision was, but it seems to have been an encounter with God. He said that now all creation was seen in a new light to him and he acquired a new meaning God, finding him in all of the things in his life. This grace, finding God in all things, is one of the central characteristics of Jesuit spirituality. Ignatius himself never wrote in the rules of the Jesuits that there should be any fixed time for prayer. He felt that by finding God in all things that all times of the day are in prayer. He did not exclude formal prayer. One of the reasons some opposed the formation of the Society of Jesus was that Ignatius proposed doing away with the chanting of the Divine Office in choir. This was a radical departure from custom, because until this time, every religious order was held to the recitation of the office in common. For Ignatius, such a recitation meant that the activity envisioned for the Society would be hindered. Some time after the death of Ignatius, a later Pope was so upset about this that he imposed the recitation of the Office on the Jesuits. Fortunately, the next Pope was more understanding and allowed the Jesuits to return to their former practice. It was also during this period at Manresa, that Ignatius undertook many extreme penances, trying to outdo those he had read of in the lives of the saints. Ignatius had not yet learned self-control and true spirituality. This is probably why the congregation he later founded did not have any prescribed or set penances, as other orders had. Ignatius finally arrived at Barcelona, took a boat to Italy, and ended up in Rome where he met Pope Adrian VI and requested permission to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Once Ignatius arrived in the Holy Land, he wanted to remain there, but was told by the Franciscan superior who had authority over Catholics there that the situation was too dangerous. The superior ordered Ignatius to leave. Ignatius refused but when threatened with excommunication, he listened and left. By now, he was 33 years old and determined to study for the priesthood. However, Ignatius was ignorant of Latin, so he started back to school studying Latin grammar with young boys in a school in Barcelona. After two years, he moved on to the University of Alcala. At the University of Paris, he began school again, studying Latin grammar and literature, philosophy, and theology. He would spend a couple of months each summer begging in Flanders for the money he would need to support himself in his studies for the rest of the year. It was also in Paris that he began sharing a room with Francis Xavier and Peter Faber. Eventually Ignatius decided to take vows of chastity and poverty and to go to the Holy Land. If going to the Holy Land became impossible, they would then go to Rome and place them at the disposal of the Pope for whatever he would want them to do. They did not think of doing this as a religious order or congregation, but as individual priests. For a year, they waited, however no ship was able to take them to the Holy Land because of the conflict between the Christians and Muslims. While waiting, they spent some time working in hospitals and teaching catechism in various cities of northern Italy. It was during this time that Ignatius was ordained a priest, but he did not say Mass for another year. It is thought that he wanted to say his first Mass in Jerusalem in the land where Jesus himself had lived. Ignatius, along with two of his companions, Peter Faber and James Lainez, decided to go to Rome and place them at the disposal of the Pope. It was a few miles outside of the city that Ignatius had the second most significant of his mystical experiences. When they met with the Pope, he very happily put them to work teaching scripture and theology and preaching. It was here on Christmas morning, 1538, that Ignatius celebrated his first Mass at the church of St. Mary Major in the Chapel of the Manger. It was thought that this chapel had the actual manger from Bethlehem, so, if Ignatius was not going to be able to say his first Mass at Jesus' birthplace in the Holy Land, then this would be the best substitute. During the following Lent in 1539, Ignatius asked all of his companions to come to Rome and discuss their future. They had never thought of founding a religious order, but now that they could not go to Jerusalem, they had to think about their futures and whether they would spend it together. After many weeks of prayer and discussion, they decided to form a community, with the Pope's approval, in which they would vow obedience to a superior general who would hold office for life. They would place themselves at the disposal of the Holy Father to travel wherever he should wish to send them for whatever duties. A vow to this effect was added to the ordinary vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Pope Paul III gave formal approval of this new order the following year on September 27, 1540. Their order became known as the Society of Jesus. Ignatius was elected on the first ballot of the group to be superior, but he begged them to reconsider, pray, and vote again a few days later. The second ballot came out as the first, unanimous for Ignatius, except for his own vote. He was still reluctant to accept, but his Franciscan confessor told him it was God's will, so he accepted the position. On the Friday of Easter week, April 22, 1541, at the Church of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls, the friends pronounced their vows in the newly formed Order. Ignatius, whose love it was to be actively involved in teaching catechism to children, directing adults in the Spiritual Exercises, and working among the poor and in hospitals, would for the most part sacrifice this love for the next fifteen years--until his death--and work out of two small rooms, his bedroom and next to it his office, directing this new society throughout the world. He would spend years composing the Constitutions of the Society and would write thousands of letters to all corners of the globe to his fellow Jesuits dealing with the affairs of the Society and to lay men and women directing them in the spiritual life In his letters to members of the Society, he treated each one as an individual. He was overly kind and gentle with those who gave him the most problems. On the other hand, with those who were the holiest and humblest, he seemed at times to be too harsh, obviously because he knew they were able to take his corrections without rancor, knowing that Ignatius loved them and was looking only to their greater spiritual good. A bishop had a great animosity to the Society. He refused to have this new Order in his diocese, and he excommunicated anyone who made the Spiritual Exercises. The Jesuits knew him as Bishop “Cilicio”. Ignatius told the Jesuits who were worried about his attitude to relax. “Bishop Cilicio is an old man. The Society is young. We can wait.” Perhaps the work of the Society of Jesus began by Ignatius that is best known by his love of education. I think it is interesting that he did not intend to include teaching among the Jesuits' works at the beginning. The purpose of the first members was to be at the disposal of the Pope to go where they would be most needed. Before 1548, Ignatius had opened schools in Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, and India, but they were intended primarily for the education of the new young Jesuit recruits. However, in 1548 at the request of the magistrates of Messina in Sicily, Ignatius sent five men to open a school for lay as well as Jesuit students. It soon became clear by requests from the rulers and bishops for more of these schools. They felt that these schools were truly one of the most effective ways to correct ignorance and corruption among the clergy and faithful. They felt it would help to stem the decline of the Church in the face of the Reformation, and to fulfill the motto of the Society of Jesus, "Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam”, and To the Greater Glory of God. Ever since his student days in Paris, Ignatius had suffered from stomach ailments and they became increasingly troublesome in Rome. In the summer of 1556, his health grew worse, but his physician thought he would survive this summer as he had done others. Ignatius, however, thought that the end was near. On the afternoon of July 30th, he asked Polanco to go and get the Pope's blessing for him. Polanco trusted the physician more than Ignatius and told him that he had a lot of letters to write and mail that day and that he would go for the Pope's blessing the next day. Though Ignatius indicated that he would prefer if he went that afternoon, he did not insist. Shortly after midnight, Ignatius took a turn for the worse. Polanco rushed off to the Vatican to get the papal blessing, but it was too late. The former worldly noble and soldier who had turned his gaze to another court and a different type of battle had rendered his soul into the hands of God. Ignatius was beatified on July 27, 1609 and canonized by Pope Gregory XV on March 12, 1622 together with St. Francis Xavier. The universal Church celebrates Ignatius’ feast day on July 31, the day he died. Bibliography:

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