Historical Figure
Ignatius of Loyola
d. 1556
Basque Spaniard Catholic priest and theologian (1491–1556)
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Biography
Ignatius of Loyola, venerated as Saint Ignatius of Loyola, was a Spanish Catholic priest and theologian, who, with six companions, founded the religious order of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), and became its first Superior General, in Paris in 1541.
In Their Own Words (5)
The enemy is like a woman, weak in face of opposition, but correspondingly strong when not opposed. In a quarrel with a man, it is natural for a woman to lose heart and run away when he faces up to her; on the other hand, if the man begins to be afraid and to give ground, her rage, vindictiveness and fury overflow and know no limit.
No. 325. , 1548
The safest and most suitable form of penance seems to be that which causes pain in the flesh but does not penetrate to the bones, that is, which causes suffering but not sickness. So the best way seems to be to scourge oneself with thin cords which hurt superficially, rather than to use some other means which might produce serious internal injury.
No. 86. , 1548
The picture. A great plain, comprising the entire Jerusalem district, where is the supreme Commander-in-Chief of the forces of good, Christ our Lord: another plain near Babylon, where Lucifer is, at the head of the enemy.
No. 138. , 1548
I have studied at Barcelona, at Salamanca, at Alcala, at Paris; what have I learned? The language of doubt; but in me there was no harbor for doubt. Jesus came, and my trust in God has grown by the doubts of men.
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 599. , 1895
We should always be prepared so as never to err to believe that what I see as white is black, if the hierarchical Church defines it thus.
No. 365. , 1548
Timeline
The story of Ignatius of Loyola, told in moments.
Born Inigo Lopez de Onaz y Loyola in the Basque Country. The youngest of thirteen children in a minor noble family. He grew up reading chivalric romances and dreaming of military glory.
A cannonball shattered his right leg at the Battle of Pamplona. During months of painful recovery, the only books available were a life of Christ and a collection of saints' lives. He read them because there was nothing else.
Gathered six companions at Montmartre in Paris and took vows of poverty and chastity. Francis Xavier was among them. This small group became the Society of Jesus. Ignatius was 43.
Pope Paul III approved the Jesuits as a religious order. Ignatius was elected the first Superior General. Within a generation, Jesuits would operate schools from Lisbon to Nagasaki.
Artifacts (10)
Christ, Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier
Pieter de Jode I|Nicolaes Lauwers|Nicolaes Lauwers
Vita Beati P. Ignatii Loiolae
Saint Ignatius of Loyola|Peter Paul Rubens|Cornelis Galle I
St. Ignatius of Loyola
Nicolas de Largillierre (or Largillière)|Cornelius Vermeulen|Nicolas Bazin
Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Allegories of the Four Continents
Felix Anton Scheffler
St. Ignatius of Loyola, from the series Male Founders of Religious Orders
Philips Galle|Hieronymus (Jerome) Wierix|Philips Galle
Saint Francis Xavier and Saint Ignatius of Loyola
Schelte Adams à Bolswert|Peter Paul Rubens
The Miracles of Saint Ignatius of Loyola
Theodor van Merlen II|Ignatius Cornelis Marinus|Peter Paul Rubens
Saint Ignatius of Loyola Preaching
Johann Wolfgang Baumgartner
Christ in Glory with Saint Lawrence, Saint Anthony of Padua, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, and Saint Eligius.
Ubaldo Gandolfi
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