Spanish churchman,
founder of the Jesuits
Early Life and Ordination
Ignatius was of noble birth and
was reared in the household of a prominent courtier. In 1517 he left his life at
court to enter the army. During a convalescence (1521) from a serious wound, he
was converted through reading a life of Jesus. He went to Montserrat, where he
was confessed and absolved, and from there he went to Manresa. In 1523 he set
out for the Holy Land. Prevented from entering Palestine, he returned with the
decision to secure an education.
He
studied at Barcelona (1524–26); at Alcalá (1526–27), where for a short time
he was imprisoned by the Inquisition; at Salamanca (1527–28), where he again
suffered brief imprisonment; and at Paris. St. Ignatius’s strength lay not in
scholarship but in spiritual direction. The Inquisition again became suspicious,
but he was cleared of any irregularities. He and six followers—among them St.
Francis Xavier and Diego Lainez—together took vows of poverty and chastity.
This group was the nucleus of the future Jesuits. They planned to go to the Holy
Land and live in imitation of Christ, working to convert the Muslims, but the
Turkish wars intervened, and they went to Rome instead.
They were ordained (1537) and received by the pope (1538), who set them to work
in Italy.
Founding of the Jesuit Order
In
1539, Ignatius drew up a Formula for a new order and secured (1540) papal
approval. It served as the basis for
the later Constitutions, published
at his death, by which Jesuits have been governed ever since. Ignatius was
elected (1541) general of the order and remained its leader, 
Counter Reformation, the society was not founded particularly for that purpose.
Ignatius’s great interests seem to have been the foreign missions and the
education of youth. Many schools were opened in Europe during his lifetime, and
missions were begun in Japan, India, and Brazil.
He was dominated all his life
by a desire to imitate Christ. His Spiritual Exercises, written over a number of
years, are a series of reflections, examinations of conscience, and prayers,
grouped according to a traditional set of four steps leading to mystical union
with God. The spirituality identified with St. Ignatius is characterized by
emphasis on human initiative. His little book is a classic of Christian
mysticism and is much used by devout Catholics. His concept of the “soldier of
Christ” has often been understood too militaristically: Ignatius used the
image in obvious imitation of St. Paul (Eph. 6.10–17). He is buried in the Gesù
at Rome. He was canonized in 1622. Feast: July 31.
Bibliography
See Letters of St. Ignatius
Loyola (tr. 1959) and his quasi-autobiography, The Testament of Ignatius Loyola
(tr. 1900); J. P. Brodrick, The Origin of the Jesuits (1940, repr. 1971); T.
Maynard, Saint Ignatius and the Jesuits (1956); H. Rahner, Ignatius the
Theologian (tr. 1968); W. W. Meissner, Ignatius of Loyola: The Psychology of a
Saint (1992).