. 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, ...
