St Ignatius Loyola (1491 - 1556)
Our current pope is a Jesuit.
Ignatius (or Iñigo) was born in Loyola in the Spanish Basque country. He was a soldier, but was wounded in the battle of Pamplona (against the French) at the age of 30. During a long convalescence he read a life of Christ and a collection of lives of the saints, and discovered that his true vocation was to devote his life wholly to God. He was as systematic about this as he had been about his military career: he spent a year’s retreat in a Dominican friary, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and then set about learning Latin.
Our current pope is a Jesuit.
Ignatius (or Iñigo) was born in Loyola in the Spanish Basque country. He was a soldier, but was wounded in the battle of Pamplona (against the French) at the age of 30. During a long convalescence he read a life of Christ and a collection of lives of the saints, and discovered that his true vocation was to devote his life wholly to God. He was as systematic about this as he had been about his military career: he spent a year’s retreat in a Dominican friary, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and then set about learning Latin.
Such enthusiasm in a layman caused grave suspicion in
the Spanish authorities, and he was questioned and imprisoned more than
once. He moved to Paris in 1528 and continued his studies; and then in
1534 Ignatius and six companions bound themselves to become missionaries
to the Muslims in Palestine. By the time they were ready to set out,
war made the journey impossible and so the group (now numbering ten)
offered their services to the Pope in any capacity he might choose. A
number of them were duly ordained and they were all assigned to various
tasks.
Soon it was proposed that they should organise
themselves into a regular religious order, and in 1540 the Society of
Jesus (the Jesuits) was formed. Ignatius was the first Superior General
until his death. Soon after their foundation the Jesuits began to meet
the challenge of the Reformation: a tough task, given the debilitated
state into which the Church had fallen, but one which, as Ignatius said,
had to be undertaken “without hard words or contempt for people’s
errors”.
Ignatius had a gift for inspiring friendship, and was
the recipient of deep spiritual insight. Soon after his conversion
Ignatius wrote the Spiritual Exercises, a systematic step-by-step
retreat that can be followed by anyone – and has been followed by many,
not all of them Catholics, ever since.
See the article in the Catholic Encyclopaedia. One of our readers has also recommended this site for the Spiritual Exercises.
