Saint Ignatius of Loyola

Íñigo López de Loyola was born in 1491 in the Basque country of northern Spain, the youngest of thirteen children of a noble family. He grew up a courtier and soldier, vain, quick to fight and fond of romance. In 1521, defending the fortress of Pamplona against the French, his leg was shattered by a cannonball.

During a long and painful convalescence at Loyola he asked for books of chivalry, but the only books in the house were a life of Christ and a collection of lives of the saints. He began to read them, and noticed something. His daydreams of glory left him dry and restless, while the thought of imitating the saints left him full of peace. From this he learned to “discern spirits,” to read the movements of his own heart.

He hung his sword before the image of Our Lady at Montserrat and spent most of a year at Manresa, begging, praying for hours each day and passing through great darkness and great light. There he drafted the Spiritual Exercises, a month-long course of prayer that has formed countless souls since. He went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem and then, in his thirties, went back to school, finally studying at the University of Paris.

In Paris he gathered companions, among them Francis Xavier and Peter Faber, and in 1534 at Montmartre they vowed themselves to God. In 1540 Pope Paul III approved their company as the Society of Jesus, and Ignatius was elected its first superior general. From Rome he sent his men across the world and founded schools everywhere, all “for the greater glory of God.” He died on 31 July 1556 and was canonized in 1622.