Ignatius of Loyola

Who they were

Íñigo López de Loyola was born in 1491 at Azpeitia in the Basque country. A younger son meant for the Church, he wanted to be a knight, and grew up at the courts of Castile and Navarre. Defending Pamplona against the French on 20 May 1521 he was hit by a cannonball and lamed for life; in a long convalescence he read the Golden Legend and Ludolph's Life of Christ, and decided that the only Lord worth serving was Jesus Christ.

At Montserrat he vowed chastity and exchanged his fine clothes for a beggar's. Held up by plague at Manresa, he spent months in prayer and wrote the notes that became the Spiritual Exercises. After a pilgrimage to the Holy Land he studied at Salamanca and Paris, where he took the name Ignatius and gathered his first companions. Unable to reach Jerusalem, they put themselves at the Pope's disposal, and Pope Paul III approved the Society of Jesus, whose members soon went out across Europe, Asia and the world. Ignatius stayed in Rome, caring also for the poor, orphans and sick, and died in his poor room on 31 July 1556. He is buried in the Church of the Gesù.

The miracles

The miracles examined for his beatification and canonisation are not described in the sources we have used.

Why that counted as sanctity

A wounded soldier who had dreamed of worldly glory gave his whole will to Christ and the Church, and taught countless others, through the Spiritual Exercises, to find and choose God's will. The Society he founded carried the Gospel and education to the ends of the earth.

Connected on this site

• Charles Borromeo Saint
  “Borromeo founded the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine and was a leading figure of the Counter-Reformation together with Ignatius of Loyola and Philip Neri.” — Wikipedia
• Francis Xavier Saint
  “Born in the town of Xavier, Kingdom of Navarre, he was a companion of Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits who took vows of poverty and chastity at Montmartre, Paris in 1534.” — Wikipedia
• Giovanni Colombini Saint
  “1304 – 31 July 1367) was an Italian merchant and founder of the Congregation of Jesuati (not to be confused with the Jesuits, the Society of Jesus, founded in the 16th century by Ignatius of Loyola).” — Wikipedia
• Peter Faber Saint
  “Peter Faber, SJ (French: Pierre Lefevre or Favre, Latin: Petrus Faber) (13 April 1506 – 1 August 1546) was a Savoyard Catholic priest, theologian and co-founder of the Society of Jesus, along with Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier.” — Wikipedia
• Philip Neri Saint
  “His friendship with figures such as Ignatius of Loyola and influence over the Society of Jesus played a role in the broader movement of Church reform.” — Wikipedia
• Íñigo of Oña Saint
  “Ignatius of Loyola was named after him.” — Wikipedia