Ignatius (of) Loyola

Ignatius (of) Loyola (1491)/1495–1556). Founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Born of a noble family, he became a soldier and was wounded during the siege of Pampeluna (1521). During a prolonged convalescence he read Ludolf of Saxony's Life of Christ and various lives of the saints which led him to abandon his military career. Upon recovery he went to Montserrat, made his confession, hung up his sword before a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and exchanged clothes with a beggar. There followed a year (1522–3) of prayer and mortification at Manresa, the fruit of which profound experience is manifest in his Spiritual Exercises, probably written there. He then went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, via Rome, and on his return studied for eleven years, first in Spain, then in Paris. In 1534, he and six companions (including Francis Xavier) took religious vows. In 1540 the Society of Jesus was formally established, with Ignatius its first general. The Ignatian way in prayer, based on the Exercises, moves religion from the head to the heart, in absolute devotion to God. The claim of the Exercises is that the specific will of God for this person can be found, and that God will ‘deal directly with the creature, and the creature directly with his/her Creator and Lord’. See also JESUITS.