SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. - An expression that in a general sense applies to the whole set of spiritual practices tending toward personal sanctification, and in a more particular sense, the only one considered here, to the retreat practiced over several days in order to devote oneself to the things of the spirit.
The example of Jesus in the desert and of the Apostles in the upper room (Acts 1:13) moved select groups of Christians in antiquity to withdraw during Lent to desert places. Especially after St. Euthymius (d. 473), one of the most ardent promoters of these retreats, their use spread so widely that Fr. Viller thinks it was general throughout the 6th-8th centuries. In the Middle Ages many monasteries had rooms set aside and sometimes "oremi" for these guests. The decline of monastic life brought with it the progressive disappearance of these spiritual retreats as well.
As a reaction to the religious convulsion of the fifteenth century, men eager for reform are seen drawing near for some weeks (the classic example being that of Gerard Groote) to the fires of regeneration newly kindled especially in the milieu of the "Modern Devotion." St. Ignatius of Loyola knew how providentially to organize this practice, assigning it a well-defined task, organizing a gradual and methodical process, placing the whole ascetic labor under the guidance of a director.
Here in summary is the development of St. Ignatius's "tactics." In a first study, that is, in the so-called first week, after having shown with the "principio y fundamento" the norm and the criterion according to which all actions must be conformed, he goes about arousing in the exercitant a deep aversion to sin and to all the disorders and attachments that hinder the service of God. Once this "purgation" of the soul has been made, St. Ignatius presents Jesus Christ as the model of divine service and in the act of calling to his following, at the same time disposing the soul so that, in imitation of Him, it may order all its powers and its own life. In the third and fourth week the author of the Spiritual Exercises seeks to lead to a more intimate interpenetration and transformation of the soul with the Lord, through an inner crucifixion and an almost identification with the criteria and sentiments of Jesus Christ. Only thus will the perfect ordering of love come about, as he teaches in the contemplation to obtain love, and the soul will be able to serve and love God in all things.
The book of the Spiritual Exercises was composed by St. Ignatius in order and as an aid to this purpose. It is therefore not a book for reading, and even less the theoretical exposition of a system. The structure of the book was sketched at Manresa (1522), and is the fruit of a "clear illumination" in which the Lord deigned to "open the eyes of his intellect... and make him know things in so excellent a manner that they seemed to him new" (Autobiogr., n. 30). The Saint profited from new experiences and further readings to perfect his sketch. He also reworked the form, thus converting the primitive notes for personal use into a useful guide for other directors. In these additions one can note the influence of the De imitatione Christi, of the Vita Christi of Ludolph of Saxony and of the Legenda aurea of Jacobus de Voragine, as well as of manuals such as the books of the daytime hours and the Confessionali. The much-discussed influence of the Ejercitatorio of Cisneros was not properly a literal influence, but a psychological one. Through it, St. Ignatius was able to enter into relation with methodical prayer and with various exercises and practices then known.
On 31 July 1548 the Ignatian book was solemnly approved by Paul III, with the brief Pastoralis officii, the first link in a chain of more than 600 testimonies given in favor of the book by 35 supreme pontiffs, over four centuries down to the present. Pius XI published the special encyclical Mens nostra (20 Dec. 1929) and already earlier, in the apostolic constitution Summorum Pontificum (25 July 1922), responding to the requests of 672 among cardinals, archbishops and bishops,
had constituted St. Ignatius of Loyola heavenly patron of
all the Spiritual Exercises and of the institutions that promote them, in terms,
according to Cardinal Enrico Pla y Daniel, analogous to those
used by Leo XIII when he declared St. Thomas
Aquinas patron of Catholic schools, so that one could deduce from this a preference for St. Ignatius in the spiritual field similar to that given by the Church to the "common and universal doctor" in the field of ecclesiastical
sciences. Thus is also explained the exceptional statement
of Pius XI, when in the encyclical Mens nostra he calls
the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises "the wisest and most universal code
of spiritual government of souls... a most sure guide
to conversion and to the highest spirituality," and that
of Pius XII: "the Exercises of St. Ignatius will always be one of the
most efficacious means for the spiritual regeneration of the
world" because of its right ordering, "but on condition that
they continue to be authentically Ignatian" (24 Oct.
1948).
The Spanish original of the Spiritual Exercises has been lost.
There is preserved, however, a copy used and retouched by the Saint
in his own hand, which is called the "autograph." The
editions made of the book in 22 languages number about 300. To these
must be added those included in the various commentaries
on the Exercises made by more than 800 authors. Thus one arrives, according to approximate calculations, at an average of one edition
a month over four centuries, "at a minimum of 4 or 5
million copies."
At the beginning the Spiritual Exercises were given individually. The
colleges of the Jesuits in the seventeenth century had special rooms
for those making the exercises. But there were also
houses established exclusively for the Spiritual Exercises. The first of
all, which lasted only a few months, was a villa
leased at Siena in 1538. In 1555 a house of exercises was built in a stable manner at Alcalá. Others followed at
Cologne (1561), at Louvain (1569), at Val de Rosal
(1570). Famous, and specially made for retreats,
was the "Asceterium" that arose at Milan through the work of St. Charles
Borromeo (1579), who made the Ignatian method the animating soul of his reform. Already in the seventeenth century the Spiritual Exercises spread
into many nations of Europe, into America,
India and Japan. Among those making the exercises were found
cardinals, bishops, diplomats, professors of universities, influential men, but above all many priests and
religious, including those of the most ancient Orders
such as Benedictines, Dominicans, Franciscans, Camaldolese, Augustinians.
The Spiritual Exercises in groups, begun in the seventeenth century with religious and priests, took in the eighteenth century a remarkable
development, their promoters being the great apostles of the
priesthood: Pierre de Bérulle, St. Francis de Sales,
J. J. Olier, St. Vincent de Paul, who personally gave them
to more than 20,000 persons. The beginning of the
large-scale movement of the Spiritual Exercises for the laity is constituted by the foundation of the house of Vannes (1659)
thanks to the generosity of the bishop, Msgr. Kerlivio.
Father V. Huby, the animator of the work, gave each year
the Spiritual Exercises to about 2,500 men. Alongside that one, Catherine
de Francheville founded another house for women with
350 rooms.
Other great apostles of the Spiritual Exercises were, still in
France, Fathers Maunoir (d. 1683), Jégou (d.
1701), Renauldt (d. 1743), Mayet (d. 1761)
and Claude Thérèse de Kermoto; in Italy Fathers Pavone
(d. 1637), Segneri (d. 1694), Cattaneo (d.
1705), de Mattheis (d. 1779), Lentini (d. 1795),
with Fathers Manulio (d. 1742) and Vassallo (d. 1775)
founders of the houses of Spiritual Exercises of Naples and Cagliari; in Spa-in Fathers Peguera (d. 1769) and Bertran (d. 1774)
founders of the houses of Gerona and Barcelona and Father Calatayud (d. 1773); in Brazil and Portugal, Father Malagrida (d. 1761); in America Fathers Serra (d.
1697), Márquez (d. 1768), Moncada (d. 1768); in China Fathers de Chavagnac (d. 1717) and Benoist
(d. 1774), in India Father Lavernhe (d. 1735),
Bertoldi (d. 1740), Beschi (d. 1747). In the Germanic
and Slavic lands there stood out, more than individuals, the well-organized centers such as Cologne, Olmütz, Prague, Dillingen,
Freiburg, etc.
In the eighteenth century the practice of retreats became one of the
most used among spiritual persons, thanks above all to the
fervent recommendations of the Popes, principally of
Clement XI, Clement XII and Benedict XIV. The extinction of the Society of Jesus (1773) was for retreats
a most grave blow. Nevertheless there remained isolated centers, as at Buenos Aires, where Maria Antonia de la
Pas (d. 1799) succeeded in organizing Spiritual Exercises for 250,000
persons; in Italy through the work of St. Alphonsus M. de Liguori
and the Redemptorists, at Regensburg with the cooperation of Msgr.
Sailer, in France with Victoire de S. Luc (d. 1794)
and with Marie Charlotte de Marigoo (d. 1819).
In the nineteenth century Father Roothaan (d. 1833) was the
true restorer of the theory and practice. There distinguished
themselves furthermore in France Father de Ravignan (d. 1858) and
principally Father H. Watrigant (d. 1826) at
first, until 1887, as restorer and director of the
house of Château-Blanc and, later, with his library of
Spiritual Exercises established at Enghien (Belgium) and his numerous studies
of orientation and popularization.
Today the Spiritual Exercises have taken on a development never
known previously in history. They have become
obligatory for priests (at least once
every three years) and for religious (at least once
a year: CIC, cann. 126, 595), and for those who are
about to receive first tonsure or Orders (can.
1001 § 1); and very many others make them. According to statistical
calculations, at least two million persons practice
each year the closed Spiritual Exercises. The Jesuits alone, in the year
1948, gave them to about 850,000 persons.
The influence of the Spiritual Exercises is still accomplished by many
other means: "open" exercises, popular missions, literature and spiritual direction based on Ignatian
principles, and above all through the infiltration of many
of the elements of his spirituality not only into the CIC,
but into organs, institutions and spiritual practices of the
Church.
Bibliography6 works
V. Gagliardi, L. La Palma, F. Suárez (De Religione, Tract. X,
lib. IX, chaps. 5-7); among the moderns, V. Mercier, F. Hummelauer,
E. Prayvora, G. Calveras, H. Picard de la Boullaye, L. Ambruzzi,
A. Valensin. The Italian authors who develop the Exercises are: G. Buceroni,
F. Calcagno, O. Marchetti, P. Orsini, L. Rosa, G. Porta. Other
authors: I. Casanova, A. Denis, H. Gabriel, H. Longhaye, M. Meschler, A. Orsi, G. Ovecka, F. Rickaby, W. Sierp. History of the
Exercises: H. Bernard, Essai Matrique sur les exercices, Louvain 1926;
I. Iparraguirre, Historia de la práctica de los ejercicios, I. Bilbao-Rome 1946. Bibli: E. Raito von Frantz, Exercitiou-Bibliographie, Freiburg 1940. The journal Manereta (Barcelona) publishes systematically a bibliographical bulletin of the articles
and works that appeared within the year on the Exercises.