Saint Ignatius of Loyola

Saint Ignatius of Loyola was born at the castle of Loyola above Azpeitia in 1491 AD. He was baptized with the name Inigo and took the name Ignatius later, at Rome. About 1506 AD he went to Arevalo, into the household of the crown's chief treasurer.

St. Ignatius took great care of his hair and dress, and wanted to win glory. In 1517 AD he entered the service of the Duke of Najera, who taught him the military art himself. At the storming of Najera in 1520 AD he refused any share of the plunder.

The French crossed into Navarre, and St. Ignatius went into the citadel of Pamplona of his own accord. On May 20, 1521 AD a cannon ball tore open one leg and broke the other. The citadel surrendered as he fell.

At Loyola the surgeons broke and reset the leg, and he gave no sign of pain but clenched fists. He asked for romances of chivalry, and the house had none. They brought him a Life of Christ and a book of the saints instead.

At the end of February 1522 AD he rode out of his father's house for Montserrat. On the eve of the Annunciation he gave his costly clothes to a beggar. He hung his sword and dagger at Our Lady's altar and watched there all night.

He came down to Manresa at daybreak, begged his bread and stayed the better part of a year. Sitting on the bank of the river Cardoner, the eyes of his soul were opened. At Manresa he began the notes that grew into the Spiritual Exercises.

He sailed from Venice for Cyprus on July 24, 1523 AD, after several days of fever. The doctor had told him that morning that he could go if he wished the ship to be his tomb. He entered Jerusalem at midday on September 4, 1523 AD.

He asked to stay and visit the holy places often. The Franciscan Provincial ordered him to leave with the pilgrims the next day. He sailed from Jaffa on October 3, 1523 AD, after about six weeks in Palestine.

He decided to study so as to be better fitted to save souls. At thirty-three he went back to grammar school at Barcelona, taught free by a master there. He gave eleven years to study, more than a third of his remaining life.

At Alcala de Henares he spent forty-two days in prison, the first seventeen without being told the charge. At Salamanca he was chained to a pillar beside his companion. He walked into Paris on February 2, 1528 AD and sat down in a class with children.

At Montmartre on August 15, 1534 AD, seven men vowed poverty, chastity and a journey to Jerusalem. St. Ignatius was ordained priest at Venice on June 24, 1537 AD. That July the Turkish war closed the sea, and the voyage was given up.

For three months in 1539 AD the companions met in the evenings and agreed unanimously to live under obedience. Pope Paul III approved their Formula by word of mouth at Tivoli on September 3, 1539 AD. The bull Regimini militantis Ecclesiae approved the Society of Jesus on September 27, 1540 AD.

On April 8, 1541 AD every vote but his own elected him Superior General. He refused the office and accepted it eleven days later. He governed from Rome by letter, sending two hundred and fifty in a few days of December 1542 AD.

Pope Paul III approved and praised the Spiritual Exercises on July 31, 1548 AD. He made India a province of the Society in 1549 AD, under Saint Francis Xavier. The Roman College opened on February 22, 1551 AD, and taught Latin and Greek the next day.

In August 1553 AD he began dictating the story of his life to Luis Goncalves da Camara. He finished it on October 22, 1555 AD, the day before da Camara left for Portugal. By February 1556 AD he had for several months been unable to celebrate Mass.

On July 30, 1556 AD he sent Polanco to Saint Peter's to beg the Pope's blessing. He died at sunrise on Friday, July 31, 1556 AD, with two priests beside him. Polanco wrote that he named no successor and passed in the common way of this world.