Information about Ignatius Loyola

Saint Ignatius of Loyola
Born	24 November 1491(1491--), Loyola (Azpeitia)
Died	31 July 1556 (aged 66), Rome
Venerated in	Catholic Church
Beatified	27 July 1609 by Paul V
Canonized	12 May 1622 by Gregory XV
Feast	31 July
Attributes	Eucharist, chasuble, book, cross
Patronage	Spiritual Exercises , Basque country , Diocese of Bilbao, Spain , Jesuits , Military Ordinariate of the Philippines , Society of Jesus , soldiers , Biscay

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 a Navarrese at the castle of Loyola, in the municipality of Azpeitia, 16 miles southwest of Donostia/San Sebastián in the Kingdom of Navarre, now the Basque province of Guipúzcoa, Spain (the part south of the Pyrenees of the kingdom having been absorbed by the Kingdom of Castile in 1513, and thus became part of the unified Kingdom of 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 the 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. He was very concerned about the injuries on his leg, and he was exposed (by his own decision) to several surgical operations, at that time, a very painful process.

Religious aspiration

Society of Jesus

History of the Jesuits Regimini militantis Suppresion Jesuit Hierarchy Superior General Peter Hans Kolvenbach Ignatian Spirituality Spiritual Exercises Ad maiorem Dei gloriam Magis Discernment Famous Jesuits St. Ignatius of Loyola St. Francis Xavier Blessed Peter Faber St. Aloysius Gonzaga St. Robert Bellarmine St. Peter Canisius

During the time he was recovering, 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. 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 and studied at the ascetic Collège de Montaigu of the University of Paris, where he remained over seven years. In later life, he was often called "Master Ignatius" in recognition of his final academic credential.

By 1534 he had six key companions, all of whom he met as students at the University—Francis Xavier, Alfonso Salmerons, Diego Laynez, and Nicholas Bobadilla, all Spanish; Peter Faber, a Frenchman; and Simão Rodrigues of Portugal.

Ignatius Loyola was the main creator and initial Superior General of the Society of Jesus, a religious organization of the Catholic Church which agreed straight service to the Pope in conditions of mission. The Members of the organization are called Jesuits. He is famous as the gatherer of the Spiritual Exercises, and he is kept in mind as a talented spiritual director. He was very vigorous in fighting the Protestant Reformation and promoting the following Counter-Reformation. He was beatified and then canonized and received the title of Saint on March 12, 1622. He is the patron saint of the state of Guipúzcoa as along with the Society of Jesus.

Ignatius Loyola wrote Spiritual Exercises from 1522-1524, the publication is a simple set of meditations, prayers, and various other mental exercises. The exercises of the book were designed to be carried out over a period of 28-30 days. The book was 200 pages and was designed to enhance and strengthen a person's faith experience in Roman Catholic Church manners.

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 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]

A number of Catholic churches and chapels worldwide, often associated with Jesuit educational institutions, are dedicated to St Ignatius. Perhaps the most famous of them is Basilica of St Ignacius Loyola built next to the house where he was born in Azpeitia, the Basque Country. The house itself, now a museum, is incorporated into the basilica complex.

Portrayals

• John Donne's anti-Catholic work Ignatius His Conclave (1611) satirizes the Jesuits. In the story, St. Ignatius of Loyola is an inhabitant of Hell:

But Ignatius Layola which was got neere his chaire, a subtile fellow, and so indued with the Divell, that he was able to tempt, and not onely that, but (as they say) even to possesse the Divell, apprehended this perplexity in Lucifer.^[2]

Ignatius is subsequently ejected from Hell and ordered to colonize the moon where he will do less harm.

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

See also

• List of Christian mystics
• Christian mysticism
• Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola

Notes

References

Primary

• Loyola, (St.) Ignatius (1900). The Autobiography of St. Ignatius Loyola, translated by Joseph O'Conner. Illustrated. From Internet Archive.^[3]
• 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.

Secondary

• Caraman, Philip (1990). Ignatius Loyola: A Biography of the Founder of the Jesuits. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-250130-5.
• 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.

External links

• Biography of Ignatius of Loyola
• The world of Ignatius of Loyola
• Letters of St. Ignatius of Loyola
• Article in the Catholic Encyclopedia
• St. Ignatius Loyola and Opus Dei
• Contemplation to Attain Love of Ignatius of Loyola
• The Goa Jesuit Province of the Society of Jesus
• Statue of Ignatius at Georgetown University