Inigo
de Loyola was born in 1491 in the Basque province of Guipuzcoa in
northern Spain. Of the noble family of Loyola, as a boy he was sent as a
page to serve the treasurer of the kingdom. There, he had access to
court and developed a taste for all its ways, including the ladies.
Intelligent,
of a fiery temperament and handsome, Inigo, or Ignatius, harbored
dreams of romance and worldly conquests. He was addicted to gambling,
and wasn’t above sword play, once getting into serious trouble.
At
age thirty we find him a soldier defending the fortress of Pamplona
against the French. Hugely outnumbered, the Spanish commander wished to
surrender but Ignatius egged him to fight on. As the fight continued,
Ignatius’ leg was fractured by a canon shot. Honoring his courage, the
French allowed him to be treated at his castle of Loyola rather than in
prison.
After enduring an operation without anesthetics, it was
found that there was a bone protruding from under his knee. The thought
of not being able to wear the slimming leggings of the time was
unendurable, so he had doctors saw off the bone – without anesthetics.
Still, he always limped as one leg remained shorter than the other.
Convalescing,
he asked for romance novels, but was given to read the only books in
the castle: a life of Christ and lives of the saints. As he begrudgingly
picked up the volumes, he began to notice that while his thoughts of
romance and fantasy left him restless and agitated, these books gave him
peace and a sense of true accomplishment and well-being. Slowly moved
by what he read, he made a powerful conversion.
Shedding
his fineries and donning a poor habit, he ultimately came to the cave
of Manresa by a river where he stayed for ten months. Here, he had a
powerful revelation, an experience of God as He really is so that he now
looked at all of creation in a new light – an experience that allowed
Ignatius to find God in all things – one of the central characteristics
of Jesuit spirituality. It was in the seclusion of Manresa that ideas
for his famous Spiritual Exercises began to take shape.
After
a trip to the Holy Land, the holy wanderer decided to go back to school
to learn Latin with the goal of entering the priesthood. He ultimately
went to the University of Paris where he met several young men whom he
led in the Spiritual Exercises. Two of these men were Francis
Xavier, and Peter Faber. Once ordained, he and his group decided to
place themselves at the disposition of the Pope in Rome. They taught
catechism to children, worked in hospitals and instructed adults in the Spiritual Exercises.
In
September of 1540, this first nucleus was approved by Pope Paul III, as
the order of The Company of Jesus, an institution that was to be
instrumental in countering the protestant reform of Martin Luther. They
were also active in the missions, and later became unparalleled academic
instructors of young men, as well as performing countless other
services in the Church.
Since his early conversion days, because
of indiscreet, severe penances, St. Ignatius had developed stomach
troubles that plagued him for the rest of his life. In the summer of
1556 his complaint grew worse, and his health ailing, he felt the end
approaching. Still, those around him were not unduly alarmed. But
shortly after midnight on July 31, the former soldier presented arms at
the heavenly court.
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