IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA

(1491-1556)

Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), the religious order responsible for returning large portions of Europe to the Catholic church after the Reformation. The Society of Jesus, trained by Ignatius's Spiritual Ex­ercises, epitomized the spirit of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. It was a disciplined and obedient spiritual army ready to defend and serve the church.

In 1521 serious battlefield injuries precipitated a complete religious conver­sion in Ignatius. During his long convalescence, he read spiritual classics. Since he was a gentlemen soldier who subscribed to the romantic ideals of medieval chivalry, he understood Christ and the saints to be more heroic, spiritually speak­ing, than the most valiant knights. Ignatius resolved to imitate the deeds of his spiritual heroes as a soldier of Christ.

As he fought with himself to leave behind his old way of life, he wrote the first draft of the Spiritual Exercises, a manual of self-discipline whose purpose was to root out vice and instill virtue. After several years of study, Ignatius obtained his master's degree in Paris in 1534. While he was in Paris, he vowed to live in poverty and chastity with several of his companions. When his group could not go to the Holy Land as they had hoped, they went to Rome to work as preachers, teachers, and hospital chaplains. They were officially recognized as the Society of Jesus in 1540 by Pope Paul III.

Ignatius's constitutions broke with the traditional forms of religious life. The Jesuit way of life did not call for the observance of set times for communal prayer nor for special religious garb. Ignatius wanted his men to take a fourth vow of obedience to the pope, in addition to the three traditional religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Inspired by military ideals in creating the Jesuits, Ignatius prized obedience over all other virtues. Ignatius hoped that discipline and respect for authority, joined with the conviction that prayer was found in work and action in the world, would prepare the Jesuits to revitalize the church and fight the advance of Protestantism.

Elected the first general of the Jesuits in 1541, Ignatius served in that capacity until his death. When he died in 1556, the Society of Jesus had over one thou­sand members. He was declared a saint of the Catholic church in 1622. Igna-tius's Spiritual Exercises continue to exert a great influence on the Catholic understanding of the spiritual life.

Bibliography

P. Caraman, Ignatius Loyola: A Biography ofthe Founder ofthe Jesuits, 1990.

Evelyn Toft