Ignatius of Loyola

Life and work

Ignatius was a Spanish nobleman and soldier whose leg was shattered by a cannonball during the siege of Pamplona in 1521. During a long convalescence, denied the chivalric romances he wanted to read, he instead read a life of Christ and lives of the saints, sparking a profound conversion and a resolve to devote himself entirely to God.

After a period of intense asceticism, pilgrimage, and study — including formal theological education in Paris in his thirties, alongside much younger students — Ignatius developed the Spiritual Exercises, a structured month-long program of meditation and prayer designed to help a person discern God's will, which remains widely used in Catholic (and increasingly ecumenical) spiritual direction.

In 1540, Ignatius and a small group of companions, including Francis Xavier, received papal approval to found the Society of Jesus, an order distinguished by a fourth vow of special obedience to the pope, an emphasis on education, and flexibility to be deployed wherever most needed rather than being bound to a single monastery.

The Jesuits became a leading engine of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, founding schools and universities across Europe, sending missionaries to Asia and the Americas (most famously Francis Xavier to India and Japan, and later Matteo Ricci to China), and serving as influential confessors and advisors to European rulers.

In their own words

"Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will." (the Suscipe prayer)Spiritual Exercises

Further reading

• Encyclopedia Britannica: Saint Ignatius of Loyola