St. Ignatius of Loyola

One of the best figures of the sixteenth century, St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) was born in Spain and served as a soldier as a younger man. During an extended restoration from a wound suffered in battle, he started studying the Lives of the Saints as a approach of combating boredom. Deeply moved by what he learn, he underwent a profound religious conversion, and determined to commit his life to the service of God. After a yr of seclusion, Ignatius went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; he then spent ten years finding out, starting with Latin grammar among the many schoolboys of Barcelona (a humbling expertise) and concluding with a Master of Arts diploma from the University of Paris.

While in Paris, he grew to become the chief of a bunch of seven college students (one in all whom grew to become often known as St. Francis Xavier); this group ultimately journeyed to Rome and provided its providers to the pope. Ignatius (on the age of forty-seven) and a number of the others have been ordained monks, and spent their time on numerous assignments from the Holy Father. In 1540 Ignatius’ group was formally established because the Society of Jesus. In addition to the common vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the Jesuits (as they have been generally recognized) made a particular vow of obedience to the pope.

Ignatius spent the remaining sixteen years of his life in Rome, the place he established a structure for his Order and directed its actions and progress all through Europe. Beginning underneath his management, the Society of Jesus grew to become one of many main forces of Church renewal and resurgence throughout the Catholic Reformation. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises (a information for retreat masters and retreatants) are nonetheless in use immediately, and he can rightly be thought of one of many biggest religious geniuses within the Church’s historical past.