Ignatius of Loyola

Saint Ignatius of Loyola
Saint Ignatius of Loyola
Born	24 December 1491; Loyola
Died	31 July 1556; Rome
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Beatified	27 July 1609 by Paul V
Canonized	22 May 1622 by Gregory XV
Feast	31 July
Patronage	Spiritual Exercises , Basque country , Diocese of Bilbao , Spain , Jesuits , Military Ordinariate of the Philippines , Society of Jesus , soldiers , Biscay , Spain

Saint Ignatius of Loyola, also known as Ignacio (Íñigo) López de Loyola (December 24, 1491 – July 31 1556), was the principal founder and first Superior General of the Society of Jesus, a religious order of the Catholic Church professing direct service to the Pope in terms of mission. Members of the order are called Jesuits.

The compiler of the Spiritual Exercises and a gifted spiritual director, Ignatius has been described by Pope Benedict XVI as being "above all a man of God, who gave the first place of his life to God...a man of profound prayer." He was very active in fighting the Protestant Reformation and promoting the subsequent Counter-Reformation. He was beatified and then canonized to receive the title of Saint on March 12, 1622. His feast day is July 31, celebrated annually. He is the patron saint of Guipúzcoa as well as of the Society of Jesus.

Early life

Íñigo was born at the castle of Loyola, in the municipality of Azpeitia, 16 miles southwest of Donostia/San Sebastian in the Basque province of Guipúzcoa, Spain. The youngest of 13 children, Ignatius was only seven years old when his mother died. In 1506, Íñigo became a page in the service of a relative, Juan Velázquez de Cuéllar, treasurer (contador mayor) of the kingdom of Castile.

In 1517, Íñigo took service in the army, defending the small town of Pamplona against the recently expelled (1512) Navarrese monarchy, who took refuge in Basse-Navarre, a part of Navarre that did not surrender to Spanish army and is an actual part of France. Highly outnumbered, the Spaniards wanted to surrender, but Ignatius persuaded them to fight on. One leg wounded, the other broken by a cannonball, Ignatius was returned to his castle by the Navarrese.

Religious aspiration

During this period of recuperation, Ignatius read a number of religious texts on the life of Jesus and the saints and became fired with an ambition to lead a life of self-denying labor and emulate the heroic deeds of Francis of Assisi and other great monastic leaders. He resolved to devote himself to the conversion of non-Christians in the Holy Land. He later changed his name from Íñigo to Ignacio (Ignatius) in honor of St. Ignatius of Antioch. Upon recovery, he visited the Benedictine monastery of Montserrat (March 25, 1522), where he hung his military vestments before an image of the Virgin. He then went and spent several months in a cave near the town of Manresa, Catalonia where he practiced the most rigorous asceticism.

The months of privation and solitude were said to have brought visions of the Virgin Mary and she then became the object of his chivalrous devotion in which military imagery played a prominent part.

During those months, he drafted his Ejercicios espirituales (Spiritual Exercises) which describes a series of meditations to be undertaken by various people who came to him for spiritual direction, including in due time the early Jesuits. The Spiritual Exercises was to exert a strong influence in changing the methods of teaching in the Church; "the mill into which all Jesuits are cast; they emerge with characters and talents diverse; but the imprint remains ineffaceable" (Cretineau-Joly). He later had to have his leg broken 3 times to make it heal properly, although during this time he studied.

Ignatius was arrested twice after being accused of teaching the ways of God without the proper education. Both of these arrests happened during the Spanish Inquisition.

Studies in Paris

While recuperating after re-breaking his leg, his inspirations came in two books that he read: Lives of Saints, and The Imitation of Christ. He then developed a philosophy for the Church, which was built on faith. For instance, if the Church said something was white, you regarded it as white, even though you thought it was black. He encouraged people to trust the Church, instead of relying on his/her own insight.

In 1528 he entered the University of Paris, at the ascetic Collège de Montaigu, where he remained over seven years, extending his literary and theological education and interacting with the students in an attempt to interest them in the Spiritual Exercises. At the University, he received a baccalaureate and, later, master's degree in theology. In later life, he was often called "Master Ignatius" in recognition of his final academic credential.

By 1534 he had six key companions—Francis Xavier, Alfonso Salmeron, Diego Laynez, and Nicholas Bobadilla, all Spanish; Peter Faber a Frenchman; and Simon Rodrigues of Portugal.

Foundation of the Society of Jesus

On August 15, 1534, he and the other six in St. Mary's Church, Montmartre, founded the Society of Jesus - "to enter upon hospital and missionary work in Jerusalem, or to go without questioning wherever the pope might direct". In 1537 they traveled to Italy to seek papal approval for their order. Pope Paul III confirmed the order through the bull Regimini militantis (September 27, 1540), but limited the number of its members to sixty. This limitation was removed through the bull Injunctum nobis on March 14, 1543.

Father General of the Jesuits

Ignatius was chosen as the first Superior General of his religious order, invested with the title of Father General by the Jesuits. He sent his companions as missionaries around Europe to create schools, colleges, and seminaries. Juan de Vega, the ambassador of Charles V at Rome had met Ignatius there. Esteeming him and the Jesuits, when Vega was appointed Viceroy of Sicily he brought Jesuits with him. A Jesuit college was opened at Messina; success was marked, and its rules and methods were afterwards copied in other colleges.[1] In 1548 Spiritual Exercises was finally printed, and he was briefly brought before the Roman Inquisition, but was released.

Ignatius wrote the Jesuit Constitutions, adopted in 1554, which created a monarchical organization and stressed absolute self-abnegation and obedience to Pope and superiors (perinde ac cadaver, "well-disciplined like a corpse" as Ignatius put it). His main principle became the Jesuit motto: Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam ("for the greater glory of God"). The Jesuits were a major factor in the Counter-Reformation.

During 1553-1555 Ignatius dictated his life's story to his secretary, Father Gonçalves da Câmara. This autobiography is a valuable key for the understanding of his Spiritual Exercises. It was kept in the archives for about 150 years, until the Bollandists published the text in Acta Sanctorum. A critical edition exists in Vol. I (1943) of the Fontes Narrativi of the series Monumenta Historica Societatis Iesu. He died in Rome on July 31, 1556 after a long struggle with chronic stomach ailments.

Canonization and legacy

Ignatius was beatified by Paul V on July 27, 1609, and canonized by Gregory XV on May 22, 1622. His feast day is celebrated annually on July 31, the day he died. Saint Ignatius is venerated as the patron saint of Catholic soldiers, the ordinariate of the Philippine military, the Basque country, and various towns and cities in his native region.

On April 22, 2006, Feast of Our Lady, Mother of the Society of Jesus, Pope Benedict XVI said that "St Ignatius of Loyola was above all a man of God, who gave the first place of his life to God, to his greater glory and his greater service. He was a man of profound prayer, which found its center and its culmination in the daily Eucharistic Celebration. In this way he left his followers a a precious spiritual inheritance that must not be lost or forgotten. As a man of God, St Ignatius was a faithful servant of the Church, in which he saw and found the spouse of the Lord and the mother of Christians. And from the desire to serve the Church in a more useful and effective way was born the vow of special obedience to the Pope, who he classified as "our first and principal foundation" (Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, I,162)."^[1]

Portrayals

St Ignatius is a principal character of the opera Four Saints in Three Acts by composer Virgil Thomson and librettist Gertrude Stein.

Notes

^ Address of Benedict XVI to the Jesuits, April 22, 2006.

References

Caraman, Philip. (1990). Ignatius Loyola: A Biography of the Founder of the Jesuits. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-250130-5.
Loyola, (St.) Ignatius. (1992). The Autobiography of St. Ignatius Loyola, with Related Documents (J. F. O'Callaghan, Trans). New York: Fordham University Press. ISBN 0-8232-1480-X.
O'Malley, John W. (1993). The First Jesuits. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-30312-1.
Meissner, William W. (1992). Ignatius of Loyola: The Psychology of a Saint. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-06079-3.
Zagano, Phyllis and C. Kevin Gillespie (2006) Ignatian Spirituality and Positive Psychology The Way vol. 45 no. 4 41-58.

External links

[1] Address of Benedict XVI to the Jesuits, April 22, 2006.

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