A bold and discerning man
He was a young man who dreamed of performing military exploits, but a cannon shot condemned him to be prostrated on a stretcher. Although not everything was bad, because there he received a visit from the Virgin Mary, which radically changed his life project. In fact, Saint Ignatius founded the Jesuit order, as he had a heart filled with burning zeal for Jesus. Furthermore, his missionary daring and enthusiasm, as well as his discernment of spirits, enabled him to become an extraordinary spiritual director for the conscience. Additionally, the power of his discernment enabled the Church to withstand such an erratic moment as the Reformation. In short, Ignatius was a blunt man who wanted only one thing: the Heart of Jesus.
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Biography of Ignatius of Loyola
Ignatius of Loyola He was born in the Basque Country in 1491, in a noble family from the province of Guipúzcoa. He lost his mother at the age of seven, so he developed a strong relationship with his father. The latter educated him until the day of his death, that is, when Ignacio was 15 years old. After these events, in 1506, the young man was placed at the service of the court of King Ferdinand of Aragon, “the Catholic”, as a page of the royal treasurer Don Juan Velásquez. During that time of youth, Ignacio led a fairly mundane life. However, at the end of Ferdinand’s reign, Ignatius left the royal court and pursued a military career serving the court of the Viceroy of Navarre.
During the siege of Pamplona, Ignacio fought against the armies of Francisco I, but he was seriously injured by a cannonball and had to stay in bed for long months of convalescence. There, he immersed himself in reading religious texts while recovering: this was the beginning of the conversion of his heart. Then, full of inspiration, Ignatius decided to completely change his path to walk the path of the Lord, so he left his family home, where he was recovering, and began his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. On the way, he symbolically abandoned his military clothes, which he placed before a statue of the Virgin. Then he put on a humble robe and continued on his way, but had to stop because of his poor health. In fact, it is said that he spent several months in a cave, where he probably began to write his diary and his “spiritual exercises“.
Before arriving in Jerusalem, Ignatius made several stops, mainly in Italy, and especially in Rome, to receive the blessing of Pope Adrian VI. His stay in Jerusalem was quite short, for he returned after a month, inflamed with the desire to begin his studies. This is how his academic career began in Spain, in the year 1526, at the prestigious University of Alcalá de Henares. However, the Inquisition made him return to Paris. There, during the seven years he spent in the French capital, Ignacio established a deep and sincere friendship with other university students, all of them from different places and regions: Pedro Fabro, Diego Laynez, Francisco Javier… This was the beginning of the Society of Jesus. In fact, the great charisma of Saint Ignatius greatly inspired and moved his friends, who went to take their monastic vows and set in motion the project of leaving for the Holy Land together. Among other things, Ignatius first went to Venice, in 1537, there he was ordained a priest, and then waited for his friends to join him; Finally, they managed to meet, but they had to put an end to their project because of the war. Later, they all left for Rome, to serve Pope Paul III.
While they were on their way, the companions rested in a small chapel to the Virgin Mary (which today is known as the visione di sant’Ignazio chapel), which was ruined by the war. There, Ignatius suddenly had a vision, in which he saw Jesus with the cross on his back, telling him: “Go to Rome, I’ll be there with you”. Later, the companions arrived in a capital divided by the war and the Protestant reformation. But not everything was bad, because Pope Paul III could see the Society of Jesus as a great opportunity to remind the world of Catholic precepts, in the midst of a counter-reformation. For this reason, he asked the companions to officially found his order and draw up its constitution. In 1540, Saint Ignatius was unanimously elected as the superior general of the Society of Jesus, and in the following years the Jesuit order it continued to develop, even more intensely after his death. Nowadays, the Jesuit order It has almost 19,000 members worldwide.
Finally, Saint Ignatius of Loyola he died in Rome in 1556 and was canonized in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV. In 1626, a few years later, construction began the church of San Ignacio de Loyola in Rome: it is a large Jesuit building that stands out for its ceiling, which was painted by the Jesuit priest and Baroque painter Andrea Pozzo: when painting it, a pictorial technique called “trompe l’oeil” was used (a pictorial technique that tries to deceive the eye playing with the architectural environment, achieving an «intensified reality» or «reality substitution»). As a curious fact, we can add that the Feast of Saint Ignatius It is celebrated on July 31.
Spiritual exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola
“The exercises are all the best that I can think, feel and understand in this life, so for man to be able to take advantage of himself, as well as to be able to bear fruit, help and take advantage of many others…” – Saint Ignatius of Loyola
Saint Ignatius of Loyola He is known for having founded the Society of Jesus, but also for having developed his spiritual exerciseswhich he had begun to write during his long months of asceticism, while on his way to the Holy Land.
In fact, in ignatian spirituality, the spiritual exercises they are a 30-day retreat, during which the praying person meets the Lord through a series of prayers and meditations. These exercises favor discernment and are organized in four weeks, during which there is time for contemplation and meditation on the Passion of Christ, with advice on welcoming God’s love and following in the footsteps of his son Jesus Christ. During this time, the participants are accompanied by a guide and have a manual to help them fulfill their role as well as possible during these thirty days of retreat. The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius are said to be an integral part of life in the Jesuit Order, taking place during the novitiate of new members of the Order and before the taking of solemn vows.
However, the exercises of Saint Ignatius are also accessible to all Christians. Furthermore, Pope Francis strongly recommends this practice, stating in 2014:
“I thank you for the valuable service you render to the Church, so that the practice of the Spiritual Exercises spreads, is sustained and valued. Proposing the Spiritual Exercises means inviting an experience of God, of his love, of its beauty. Whoever lives the exercises in an authentic way experiences the attraction, the fascination of God, and returns renewed, transfigured to ordinary life, to ministry, to daily relationships, carrying with them the perfume of Christ”. (March 2014).
The Society of Jesus: cradle of the Jesuit order
As we have mentioned before, it was in this way that Ignatius of Loyola and his companions made possible the birth of the Society of Jesus, whose members we know as Jesuits. They, in addition to being a strategic help for Pope Paul III in the face of a Rome that was divided, also caused a quite profound spiritual revolution.
During the first years of the creation of the order, Saint Ignatius was already considered by his peers as a charismatic force. Due to the above, he was appointed Superior General of the company of Jesusalthough he had not explicitly expressed his desire to perform such a function.
A quite revolutionary aspect of the Jesuit Order is its emphasis on the importance of a deep academic education, as part of the preparation for life in a monastery. This aspect has been influenced by the very experience that Saint Ignatius had, so his spiritual exercises take on great importance and his goal is to try to learn discernment through meditations and guided reflection sessions. In this way, the Jesuits spread their influence by teaching in universities and schools in Europe. In fact, his growing popularity contributed greatly to the revival of fervor for the Catholic religion, even long after the death of Saint Ignatius.
The great influence of the Jesuit order began with the departure of the first missionaries throughout Europe and throughout the world, who were filled with that fervent purpose to build, evangelize and educate. In fact, the Jesuits were very successful in Latin America, especially among the indigenous peoples. For their part, in China, they also contributed to the renewal of interest in science, through the dissemination of books and academic documents from the West.
However, in a context of war and a race for territorial expansion, the Society of Jesus and its missionaries became an increasingly controversial subject. For example, in Latin America, the Jesuits protected the indigenous populations from the Portuguese and Spanish colonizers. In Japan, his growing influence over peasant villages caused concern among senior leaders. In addition, in Latin America, as in China, Japan and the rest of the world, there were strong repressions that seriously affected the mission of the Society of Jesus. Finally, after so many events, the Society of Jesus was abolished in 1773 by decree of Pope XIV.
In 1814, Pope Pius VII reversed this suppression, and the Jesuit Order grew steadily in the following centuries, with the founding of many universities in the United States.
Learn a little more about the influence and mission of the Jesuit Order today here.