Flora Cantábrica

Saint Ignatius of Loyola

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Saint Ignatius of Loyola
July 31
Year 1556
Saint Ignatius: pray to God for all those who, like you, wish to extend the Kingdom of Christ and to make our Divine Savior more loved.
«All for the greater glory of God» (Saint Ignatius)
Saint Ignatius was born in 1491 in the castle of Loyola, in Guipúzcoa, northern Spain, near the Pyrenees Mountains on the border with France.
His father, Bertrán de Loyola, and his mother, Marina Sáenz, came from very distinguished families. They had eleven children: eight boys and three girls. The youngest of all was Ignatius.
The name given to him at baptism was Iñigo.
He entered the military career, but in 1521, at the age of 30, already a captain, he was seriously wounded while defending the Castle of Pamplona. When their commander was wounded, the castle garrison surrendered to the French army.
The victors sent him to their castle of Loyola to be treated for his wound. They performed three extremely painful operations on his knee without anesthesia; but he refused to be tied down or held down. During the operations, he didn’t utter a single complaint. The doctors were amazed. To ensure that his operated leg wouldn’t become shorter, they tied weights to his foot, and he stood for weeks with his foot elevated, supporting such a heavy weight. However, he remained lame for life.
Despite this, Ignatius maintained a very elegant and refined manner throughout his life when dealing with all kinds of people. He had learned it at court in his childhood.
While he was convalescing, he asked for chivalric novels, full of invented and imaginary stories, to be brought to him. But his sister told him she had no other books except «The Life of Christ» and «The Christian Year,» or the story of each day’s saint.
And a very special case happened to him. Before, while reading novels and invented stories, he would feel satisfaction at the moment, but then be left with a terrible feeling of sadness and frustration. Now, however, when he read the Life of Christ and the Lives of the Saints, he felt an immense joy that lasted for days on end. This made a profound impression on him.
And as he read the stories of the great saints, he thought: «Why not try to imitate them? If they could reach that level of spirituality, why can’t I? Why not try to be like Saint Francis, Saint Dominic, etc.? These men were made of the same clay as I am. Why not strive to reach the level they achieved?» And then what Jesus said would be fulfilled in him: «Blessed are those who have a great desire to be holy, for their desire will be granted» (Mt. 5:6), and what the psychologists said: «Be careful what you wish for, for it will be yours.»
While he was seriously contemplating conversion, one night Our Lady appeared to him with her Most Holy Son. The vision consoled him immensely. From then on, he resolved not to serve earthly rulers but the King of heaven.
As soon as his convalescence ended, he went on a pilgrimage to the famous Shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat. There, he made a serious resolution to dedicate himself to doing penance for his sins. He exchanged his luxurious clothes for those of a beggar, consecrated himself to the Most Holy Virgin, and made a general confession of his entire life.
And he went to a small town called Manresa, 15 kilometers from Montserrat, to pray and do penance. He stayed there for a year. Near Manresa, there was a cave, and he shut himself away in it to devote himself to prayer and meditation. There he came up with the idea of ​​the Spiritual Exercises, which would do so much good to humanity.
After a few days in which he felt great joy and consolation in prayer, he began to feel boredom and tired of anything spiritual. The wise call this crisis of discouragement «the dark night of the soul.» It is a difficult state that each person must go through to convince themselves that the consolations they feel in prayer are not deserved, but are a free gift from God.
Then he suffered from another very bothersome spiritual illness: scruples. That is, the imagining that everything is sin. This almost drove him to despair.
But he kept notes of what happened to him and what he felt, and these insights later gave him great skill in spiritually directing other converts and, based on his own experiences, in teaching them the path to holiness. While praying in Manresa, he acquired what is called «Discretion of Spirits,» which consists of knowing how to determine what is happening to each soul and what advice they most need, and knowing how to distinguish good from evil. He later told a friend: «In one hour of prayer in Manresa, I learned more about directing souls than anything I could have learned attending universities.»
In 1523, he went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, begging alms along the way. He was still very impulsive and one day almost attacked with the sword someone who spoke ill of the religion. For this reason, he was advised not to stay in the Holy Land, where there were many enemies of Catholicism. Later, he acquired great kindness and patience.
At the age of 33, he began studying at a college in Barcelona, ​​Spain. His fellow students were much younger than him and mocked him a lot. He tolerated everything with admirable patience. He used everything he studied as a pretext to elevate his soul to God and worship Him.
Later, he went to the University of Alcalá. He dressed very poorly and lived on alms. He gathered children to teach them religion; he held meetings for simple people to discuss spiritual matters, and he converted sinners by speaking kindly to them about the importance of saving one’s soul.
He was unjustly accused before the religious authorities and spent two months in prison. He was later declared innocent, but there were people who persecuted him. He considered all these sufferings as a means God had provided for him to pay for his sins. He exclaimed: «There are not so many prisons in the city or so many torments as I wish to suffer for the love of Jesus Christ.»
He went to Paris to study at its famous Sorbonne University. There, he formed a group with six classmates who have become famous because with them he founded the Society of Jesus. They were: Pedro Fabro, Francisco Javier, Laínez, Salnerón, Simón Rodríguez, and Nicolás Bobadilla. They received their doctorates from that university and set a very good example for all.
The seven made vows or oaths to be pure, obedient, and poor on August 15, 1534, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. They pledged to always be at the command of the Supreme Pontiff so that he could employ them in whatever he saw fit for the glory of God.
They went to Rome, and Pope Paul III received them warmly and gave them permission to be ordained priests. Ignatius, who had changed his former name of Íñigo to that name, waited a year from the day of his ordination until the day of his first Mass, to prepare himself as best he could to celebrate it with all fervor.
Saint Ignatius dedicated himself in Rome to preaching the Spiritual Exercises and catechizing the people. His companions dedicated themselves to teaching classes at universities and colleges and to giving spiritual lectures to all kinds of people.
They made their primary task of teaching religion to the people.
In 1540, Pope Paul III approved their community called the «Society of Jesus» or «Jesuits.» The Superior General of the new community was Saint Ignatius until his death.
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