Ordered out of Jerusalem, St. Ignatius climbs the Mount of Olives twice more

JERUSALEM, September 22, 1523 AD — Saint Ignatius of Loyola, a Basque pilgrim of thirty-two, came to Jerusalem meaning to spend the rest of his life there. On September 22, 1523 AD, the superior of the Franciscan friars who look after the Christian shrines in and around the city ordered him out of the Holy Land. The superior told him he had the Pope’s authority to excommunicate a pilgrim who stayed against orders, and St. Ignatius agreed to go. Before he left, he slipped away alone to the Mount of Olives twice, and the friars had to send a man to bring him back.

St. Ignatius had been a soldier until 1521 AD, when a French cannon ball broke his right leg at the siege of Pamplona. After he recovered, he hung up his sword and dagger by the altar of the Blessed Virgin at Montserrat and lived on the alms he begged. At midday on September 4 of this year, the Franciscans came out in procession to meet his group of pilgrims and brought them into Jerusalem. St. Ignatius was deeply moved at his first sight of the city.

St. Ignatius wanted to stay in Jerusalem for life so that he could keep visiting the holy places. The friars who kept those places wanted him to leave with the other pilgrims, and their superior had the power to make him go.

Soon after he arrived, St. Ignatius gave the Guardian of the friars’ house his letters of recommendation and said he meant to stay for his own devotion. He did not tell the Guardian that he also meant to help other people toward God. The Guardian said he did not see how it could be done, because the friars were so poor that he was about to send some of them away. St. Ignatius answered that he wanted nothing but a roof. He offered to beg his food from the Christians, Muslims and Jews of the city so that he would cost the friars nothing. In the end he asked only that the Guardian hear his confession. The Guardian agreed, but told St. Ignatius to wait until the superior of all the friars in Palestine, Father Angelus of Ferrara, came back from Bethlehem.

While he waited, St. Ignatius received Communion at dawn at the Holy Sepulchre and made the Way of the Cross. He also went out to Bethany, Bethlehem, the Jordan and the Mount of Olives. He took the Guardian’s answer as a promise and began writing letters to devout friends in Barcelona. He was writing one of them on the day before the pilgrims were to leave when a messenger came to fetch him for the Guardian and Father Angelus, who was back from Bethlehem.

Father Angelus spoke kindly. He said he had heard that St. Ignatius wanted to stay and had thought hard about it. Many pilgrims had wanted the same. Some had died, others had been captured, and the friars had been left to pay their ransoms. St. Ignatius was to get ready to leave with the pilgrims the next day.

St. Ignatius argued. He told Father Angelus that “his resolution was very fixed, and he did not think that anything would keep him from executing it. If the precept did not bind him under pain of sin, he would not allow any fear to keep him from carrying out his desire.” He meant that only an order it would be a sin to disobey would make him leave.

Father Angelus then said he had authority from the Holy See to keep in the country whichever pilgrims he thought fit, to send the others away, and to excommunicate anyone who would not obey. In this case, he said, he judged it better for St. Ignatius not to remain. Father Angelus offered to show him the papal documents. St. Ignatius said there was no need to see them, “as he believed his word. If they had the authority, he would obey.”

Back at his lodging, St. Ignatius accepted that God did not want him to stay in the holy places. He then felt a strong desire to see the Mount of Olives once more before he left. On the mountain was the rock from which Christ ascended into heaven, and the marks of His feet could still be seen in it. That was what he wanted to see again.

He told no one and took no guide, though it was dangerous to go about the country without a Turkish guard. He had no money. When the guards at the shrine would not let him in, he gave them a knife from his writing case. He prayed there and was greatly consoled, then walked on toward the village of Bethphage.

At Bethphage he realised he had not noticed which of the two footprints on the rock was Christ’s right foot and which was His left. He climbed back up. This time he gave the guards his scissors, and they let him in again.

By then the friars had learned that he had gone off without a guide, and they were searching for him everywhere. On his way down the mountain, St. Ignatius met one of the searchers, a local Christian who worked at the monastery. The man wore the belt that Christians there had to wear to set them apart from Muslims.

The servant made a show of being very angry and raised a large stick as if to strike him. Then he came up and took St. Ignatius firmly by the arm. St. Ignatius let himself be led, and the servant held his arm the whole way back. St. Ignatius later recalled that “as he was thus led along a captive, he was visited with great consolation, as he seemed to see Christ walking above him. And this continued until he reached the monastery.”

The pilgrims left Jerusalem the next day, and St. Ignatius went with them.