Ignatius of Loyola

Íñigo López de Oñaz y Loyola, later known as Ignatius of Loyola, was born in 1491 at the castle of Loyola in Azpeitia, in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa, then part of the Crown of Castile. The youngest of thirteen children of a local noble family, he was raised in a hidalgo household and as a young man pursued a military and courtly career in the service of the Duke of Nájera. In May 1521, while defending Pamplona against a French force, he was struck by a cannonball that shattered one leg and wounded the other. A long convalescence at Loyola, during which he read a life of Christ and lives of the saints, brought about a lasting conversion. He resolved to abandon the pursuit of worldly honor and to imitate the saints in the service of God.

After recovering he made a vigil at the shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat, where he laid down his sword, and then spent many months in 1522 and 1523 in prayer, penance, and interior struggle at Manresa. The spiritual experiences of that period, including practices of examination of conscience and discernment of spirits, became the foundation of the Spiritual Exercises, the structured program of meditation and election that would define Jesuit spirituality. In 1523 he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, hoping to remain in the Holy Land, but the Franciscan authorities sent him back to Europe. Convinced that he needed learning in order to help souls, he studied Latin in Barcelona and then attended the universities of Alcalá and Salamanca, where his informal ministry attracted inquisitorial scrutiny. He moved to Paris in 1528, completed studies in philosophy and theology, and received the Master of Arts degree.

In Paris he gathered a small company of companions, among them Francis Xavier and Peter Faber. On 15 August 1534, at Montmartre, they took vows of poverty and chastity and pledged either a pilgrimage to Jerusalem or, if that proved impossible, to place themselves at the disposal of the pope. War prevented the journey to the East. The group went to Italy; Ignatius and several companions were ordained priests in Venice in 1537. In Rome they offered themselves to Pope Paul III. In 1540 the pope approved the Society of Jesus by the bull Regimini militantis Ecclesiae. Ignatius was elected the first Superior General in 1541 and remained in Rome for the rest of his life, governing the new order, drafting its Constitutions, and corresponding with members across Europe and in the overseas missions.

Under his direction the Society of Jesus became a major instrument of Catholic reform in the sixteenth century. It founded colleges, including the Roman College, sent missionaries to India, Japan, Brazil, and other regions, and promoted the Spiritual Exercises as a school of prayer and apostolic discernment. Ignatius insisted on mobility, education, and special obedience to the Roman pontiff, and he declined to impose choir or a fixed monastic timetable on the order. He died in Rome on 31 July 1556. He was beatified by Pope Paul V in 1609 and canonized by Pope Gregory XV in 1622, in the same ceremony as Francis Xavier, Teresa of Ávila, Isidore the Farmer, and Philip Neri. His feast is kept on 31 July. He is venerated as founder of the Jesuits and as a teacher of spiritual discernment.