Ignatius of Loyola
Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556), founder of the Jesuits. The youngest of eleven children of a Basque nobleman, he was brought up to be a soldier. He fought the French in Castile, but was wounded at the siege of Pamplona in 1521. His broken leg was badly set, was broken again, and reset: the impact of the cannon-ball, made worse by bad surgery, left him deformed and with a limp for the rest of his life. During his convalescence he asked to read knightly romances; instead he was given a Life of Christ and some Legends of the Saints. His conversion followed; he lived for a year in prayer and penance at Manresa, close to the famous abbey of Montserrat. Here he experienced both desolation and consolation, and wrote the first draft of his famous Spiritual Exercises, which incorporated some of the traditional teaching of Montserrat. In 1523 he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, begging his way like many before him. Franciscans there persuaded him to renounce a project for converting the Muslims, so he returned to Spain, still without a clear plan for his life.
He decided to study Latin in order to work for souls. He went to Barcelona, Alcala, Salamanca, and lastly Paris (1528), where he also studied philosophy for three years, graduating in 1534 as master of arts. He had lived in austere holiness and, although still a layman, had given direction to those in trouble, especially women of varied backgrounds. In Spain this had led to his imprisonment as a suspected heretic. In Paris he gathered six disciples, to whom he gave the Spiritual Exercises; together they took vows of poverty and chastity and promised to serve the Church either by preaching in Palestine or in other ways that the pope thought fit. In 1537 they met in Venice: unable to reach the Holy Land, they went to Rome and resolved to become a new religious Order. By now, they had all been ordained priests. Vows of obedience and readiness to go anywhere the pope sent them were added to the others. Works of charity such as teaching the young and uneducated, as well as missionary enterprises, were among their earliest ideals. The choral celebration of the Divine Office was abolished so as to leave them free for these works. This was a revolutionary step, but the whole package won papal approval in 1540. Ignatius was chosen, predictably but unwillingly, as the first General. For the rest of his life he stayed at Rome, directing the Society he had founded.
For fifteen years he inspired, counselled, and directed his subjects with prudence and understanding. His iron will and determination did not make him unlovable or impatient. But the way of total obedience, made by the aspirant during the Spiritual Exercises, was insisted upon; it has often been compared to a military commitment and the Society of Jesus to an army. Perhaps it is more accurate to consider the Jesuits as analogous to the Friars in the Middle Ages, but bound by a tighter organization more appropriate to the crisis situation of the 16th century.
The papacy directed them to meet this in Germany. Here Peter Canisius, supported by the German College at Rome, also directed by the Jesuits, effected a notable counter-attack to the diatribes of Lutherans and Calvinists. Fundamental to the whole enterprise of the Counter-Reformation in many countries was the unobtrusive educational work of the Jesuit schools. Their education was ‘modern’ and ‘progressive’ in so far as it made use of the classics and critical scholarship; it stimulated competition as well as interest; but it also tended to be authoritarian.
The Jesuits were, and are prominent in the foreign missions. The pioneer work of Francis Xavier in the Far East was emulated by others later in India and China, Ethiopia and the Congo, South America, and Canada. Ignatius and his successors were generous in their allocation of personnel, money, and time to their enterprises. Among Ignatius' personal foundations at Rome were houses for convert Jews and hostels for fallen women. Spiritual direction, which was to complete rather than replace the work of parish priests, was undertaken by Jesuits; but not, in their early days, the actual charge of parishes.
The first Jesuits to reach England arrived in 1542. More famous were those of the Elizabethan age like Edmund Campion and Robert Southwell, whose education, humanism, courage, and resourcefulness made them an inspiration to many English Catholics.
Ignatius died suddenly on 31 July 1556. By then the Jesuits numbered over 1, 000 members in nine European provinces besides those working in the foreign missions. In 1990 they numbered 24, 500. He was canonized in 1622 and declared patron of spiritual exercises and retreats by Pius XI. He is also patron of many schools, churches, and colleges. Feast: 31 July.
Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.
- AA.SS. Iul. VII (1731), 409–853; Monumenta Ignatiana (1903–65) contain the Life, Letters, Spiritual Exercises, and other writings: Eng. tr. of his Autobiography (ed. J. N. Tylenda, 1985), of his Letters (ed. J. A. Munitiz, 1995), of his Personal Writings (ed. J. A. Munitiz and P. Endean, 1996). Lives by J. Brodrick (1956), H. Boehmer (1951), and W. W. Meissner (1992). See also studies by H. Rahner, tr. as Ignatius the Theologian (1968), Ignatius: the man and the priest (1982); F. Wulf and others, Ignatius von Loyola… 1556–1956 (1957); J. F. Gilmont and P. Daman, Bibliographie Ignatienne, 1894–1957 (1958); B.L.S., vii. 248–59; Bibl. SS., vii. 674–705






