Feast day: 31 July
Saint Ignatius of Loyola
Sanctus Ignatius de Loyola
A soldier wounded at Pamplona who converted while convalescing and founded the Jesuits, giving the Church the Spiritual Exercises.
- Born
- c. 1491, Loyola, Basque Country, Spain
- Died
- 31 July 1556, Rome
- Canonization
- Canonized 12 March 1622 by Pope Gregory XV, on the same day as Saint Teresa of Ávila, Saint Francis Xavier, Saint Philip Neri and Saint Isidore the Farmer.
- Religious order
- Society of Jesus (Jesuits)
- Country
- Spain
Biography
Soldier and cannonball
Íñigo López de Loyola served the Duke of Nájera and was gravely wounded in the leg by a cannonball defending Pamplona on 20 May 1521. During a long convalescence at Loyola, with only a life of Christ and a book of saints to read, he noticed that daydreams of worldly glory left him empty while thoughts of imitating Saint Francis and Saint Dominic left him at peace — the beginning of his discernment of spirits.
Manresa and the Exercises
He kept vigil at Montserrat, left his sword before the image of Our Lady, and spent about eleven months at Manresa in prayer, penance and profound illumination beside the river Cardoner. There he drafted what became the Spiritual Exercises.
The Society of Jesus
He studied at Alcalá, Salamanca and Paris, where he gathered companions including Saint Francis Xavier and Blessed Peter Faber. On 15 August 1534 they made vows at Montmartre. Pope Paul III approved the Society of Jesus on 27 September 1540, and Ignatius governed it from Rome until his death, sending Jesuits as missionaries and founding schools across Europe.
Timeline
- ~c. 1491 — Born at the castle of Loyola
- 1521 — Wounded at Pamplona; conversion begins
- 1522–1523 — Montserrat and Manresa
- 1534 — Vows at Montmartre with his first companions
- 1537 — Ordained a priest in Venice
- 1540 — Paul III approves the Society of Jesus
- 1556 — Dies in Rome, 31 July
Dates marked ~ are traditional or debated among historians.
Symbols
IHS monogram — The first three letters of the name of Jesus in Greek; emblem of the Society of Jesus.
Book of the Exercises — His method of prayer and discernment.
Virtues & spiritual lessons
Discernment, obedience, magnanimity, and finding God in all things. He teaches Catholics to examine their interior movements and to order every choice toward the greater glory of God.
Importance in the Church
The Jesuits became a leading force in education, mission and theology in the Catholic Reformation. The Spiritual Exercises remain one of the most widely used retreat methods in the world.
Quotes
“For the greater glory of God.”
Ad maiorem Dei gloriam — Jesuit motto drawn from his writings
Writings
The Spiritual Exercises (approved 1548) — A manual for a four-week retreat of prayer, meditation and discernment.
Constitutions of the Society of Jesus — The governing text he laboured over in Rome.
The Autobiography (dictated 1553–1555) — His account of his conversion, dictated to Luís Gonçalves da Câmara.
Prayers
Suscipe (Take, Lord, and receive)
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. You have given all to me; to you, Lord, I return it. All is yours; dispose of it wholly according to your will. Give me your love and your grace, for this is enough for me.
Latin: Suscipe, Domine, universam meam libertatem. Accipe memoriam, intellectum atque voluntatem omnem...
Authentic prayer from the Contemplation to Attain Love, Spiritual Exercises no. 234.
Places
Sanctuary of Loyola, Azpeitia, Spain — His family home, where he convalesced and converted.
Manresa, Catalonia — The cave where he prayed and drafted the Exercises.
Church of the Gesù, Rome — His tomb, in the mother church of the Society of Jesus.
Entries are drawn from the Roman Martyrology, the General Roman Calendar, canonization records of the Holy See, and the saints' own writings. Where a date, quotation or attribution is uncertain, it is marked as such. (63 saints)