St. Ignatius gives his scissors to check Christ's footprints again

JERUSALEM, September 22, 1523 AD — On the Mount of Olives there was a rock from which Christ ascended into heaven. The marks of His feet could still be seen in it. On September 22, 1523 AD, Saint Ignatius of Loyola was told he must leave Jerusalem. He was thirty-two, and he had to go with the other pilgrims the next day.

St. Ignatius had come to Jerusalem meaning to spend the rest of his life there. He wanted to keep visiting the holy places. He had been a soldier until a cannon ball broke his leg. After he got better, he lived on what people gave him when he begged. The Franciscan friars looked after the Christian shrines in and around the city. St. Ignatius asked the Guardian of their house to let him stay.

The Guardian did not see how it could be done. The friars were so poor that he was about to send some of them away. St. Ignatius said he wanted nothing but a roof. He offered to beg his food from the Christians, Muslims and Jews of the city. That way he would cost the friars nothing.

The Guardian told him to wait for Father Angelus of Ferrara. Father Angelus was in charge of all the friars in Palestine, and he was away in Bethlehem. St. Ignatius took the Guardian’s answer as a promise. He started writing letters to friends in Barcelona.

Only one day left

St. Ignatius was writing one of those letters on September 22, the day before the pilgrims were to leave. A messenger came to fetch him, because Father Angelus was back. Father Angelus spoke kindly. He said many pilgrims had wanted to stay before. Some had died, and others had been captured. 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 mind was made up. He would leave only if he was given an order that it would be a sin to disobey. Father Angelus answered that the Pope had given him the power to send pilgrims away. He could also excommunicate anyone who would not obey. He offered to show St. Ignatius the documents from the Pope. St. Ignatius told him there was no need to see them, “as he believed his word. If they had the authority, he would obey.”

Which foot was which

Back where he was staying, St. Ignatius accepted that God did not want him to stay in the holy places. He wanted very much to see the rock on the Mount of Olives again before he left.

He told no one and took no guide. It was dangerous to go about the country without a Turkish guard. He had no money, either. The guards at the shrine would not let him in. So he gave them a knife from the case where he kept his writing things. He prayed there and felt great comfort. Then he walked on toward the village of Bethphage.

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

By then the friars knew he had gone off without a guide. They were searching for him everywhere. On his way down, St. Ignatius met one of the searchers. The searcher was a local Christian who worked at the monastery. The man pretended to be very angry and raised a large stick as if to hit him. Then the man took St. Ignatius firmly by the arm and held on the whole way back. St. Ignatius let himself be led.

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