IGNATIUS of Loyola, Saint. — The youngest son of Beltrán Yáñez de Oñaz y Loyola and Marina Sáenz de Licona y Balda, he was born in 1491 before 23 October at the palace-fortress of Loyola near Azpeitia (Guipúzcoa, Spain) and died in Rome on 31 July 1556. He was called Iñigo López de Loyola (not Recalde), though he almost never used the surname López, and changed his name from Iñigo to Ignatius between 1537 and 1542.
He was educated until the age of 12–13 in the deeply Catholic faith and Basque customs of his family at Loyola, and then (1506?–17?) became a page to Juan Velázquez de Cuéllar, treasurer to King Ferdinand the Catholic, residing with the court at Arévalo and Valladolid. During these years he read chivalric romances and indulged in sinful adventures (Azpeitia trial, 1515), yet also showed a love for music and sacred songs (a poem to St Peter and prayers to the Madonna at tournaments). After Velázquez’s fall (1517), he did not become, as has been said, a captain in the royal army, but rather a gentleman in the service of his relative the Duke of Nájera, viceroy of Navarre. In this capacity he took part, with prudence and high spirit, in the pacification of Nájera and Guipúzcoa and in the defence of the fortress of Pamplona, where he was gravely wounded by the French on 20 May 1521.
During his convalescence at Loyola, while dreaming of winning the hand of an Infanta (Doña Caterina, sister of Charles V), divine grace transformed him into the perfect knight of Christ described in the *Flos sanctorum* and the *Vita Christi* of Ludolph of Saxony, which he was reading. For love of his new King he set out on pilgrimage to Jerusalem early in 1522, but interrupted it for nearly a year, spending some time at Manresa after a brief stop at Montserrat, then living for many months as a hermit in a cave near Manresa and later in that Catalan city. There he became one of the most authentic mystics of the Church and the author of the *Spiritual Exercises* (v.), which he later perfected in Alcalá, Paris, Venice and Rome (1522–41). After his pilgrimage to the Holy Land (1523), he began long studies to prepare himself for the salvation of souls and to gather companions for the apostolate, first in Barcelona (1524–26), then in Alcalá and Salamanca (1526–27), later in Paris (1528–35), Bologna and Venice (1535–36). At Alcalá and Salamanca he was imprisoned, judged and acquitted by the diocesan vicars Figueroa and Frías—not, as is often said, by the Inquisition. At the University of Paris, which he praised highly, he obtained, after visiting Flanders and London, the degree of Master of Arts in April 1534. It was also in Paris that he finally gathered his first great companions (Faber, Xavier, Laínez, Salmerón, Bobadilla, Rodríguez) and, through the *Spiritual Exercises*, instilled in them the spirit of the vow made at Montmartre (15 August 1534): an apostolate of poverty and chastity, if possible in Palestine even to the point of martyrdom for Christ; if that failed, wherever the Vicar of Christ should wish, among faithful, infidels or Protestants, though without any direct anti-Protestant design. Ignatius delayed until 1539 the founding of an Order—not, as has sometimes been claimed, out of Erasmian leanings, but for fear that an old rule might be imposed on him that would clip the wings of his new apostolic ideal. The impossibility of reaching Palestine (May 1537–May 1538), the example of the newly founded Theatines, the protection of Paul III for the workers of Dr Ortiz and Cardinal Contarini, and finally his own mystical experience of November 1537, led him in 1539 to attempt the foundation of a new Order: the Society of Jesus (v.). This was followed by the Pope’s first verbal approval at Tivoli on 3 September 1539, the written approval in the bull of 27 September 1540, then his election as General and the first solemn profession at St Paul’s Outside-the-Walls on 8 and 22 April 1541.
His activity as founder and General unfolded in two phases, divided by the Holy Year 1550. In the first (1541–49) he pursued an apostolate to make Rome an example rather than a scandal to the world: giving the *Spiritual Exercises*, catechesis, care for fallen women, conversion of courtesans, baptism and defence of Jews, and intense pastoral work at Santa Maria della Strada near the Palazzo Venezia, the Pope’s habitual residence. At the same time he established the Order’s first novitiate, personally forming his sons in the new spirit (Ribadeneira, Doménech, Polanco, Nadal, Canisius, Manareo, Palmiero, Mercurian and the first Japanese to reach Europe, Bernardo…), and then sending them to Portugal, the Indies, Spain, Paris, Venice, Germany, Flanders, Trent, the Congo, Brazil and Ethiopia. Through Francis Borgia, who had recently entered the Order, he also secured papal approval of the *Spiritual Exercises* on 31 July 1548, a major contribution to the Catholic Reformation. After preliminary selection he sent a few companions to found houses in Goa, Gandía, Ingolstadt and Messina, and envisaged in Rome a college for the religious formation and apostolic labour of the Church.
On 1 March 1549, after founding a college in Rome for the religious formation and apostolic labour of the Church, the Council of Trent assembled and confirmed the Church’s ordinances on faith and discipline.
In his dealings with the contrasting Catholic rulers of his time and with rival universities, in the harmony he achieved within his communities among Frenchmen, Italians, Flemings, Germans and Spaniards, Ignatius revealed himself as a true practical genius in uniting forces for the Catholic Reformation and overcoming their antagonisms. It is true that his character lacked the naïve and gentle spontaneity of a Francis of Assisi or Philip Neri; yet neither did his reflective consistency lack flexible and amiable charm. Proof of this is the cordial love his sons bore him, even when he often reproved them severely, as he did Lainez, Nadal and Loarte. The latter beautifully defined him: “Father Ignatius is a fountain of oil.” From the standpoint of national psychology, the union succeeded in blending the realistic, reflective and tenacious spirit of the Basques with the chivalrous and ecumenical idealism of sixteenth-century Castilian nobility.
St Ignatius was beatified on 27 July 1609 and canonized on 12 March 1622. His feast is kept on 31 July.
Iconography. — A death-mask in wax and a plaster cast are preserved, the latter reproduced in these columns. The earliest and most authentic portraits are three: the first painted in Rome by Jacopino del Conte, Ignatius’s spiritual son; the second executed in Madrid by Alonso Sánchez Coello under Ribadeneira’s direction; the third by an anonymous artist much esteemed by Manareo and the Belgian Fathers. In the rich artistic iconography of Ignatius, notable works include statues by Montañés, Hernández and P. Le Gros, bas-reliefs by Alessandro Algardi and René Frémin, and paintings by Rubens, Roelas, Carracci, Gaulli, Brother Pozzo and Salaverrina. — See pl. XCVIII.
video 1939; P. de Leturia, Perché la Compagnia di Gesù divenne un Ordine insegnante, Rome 1940, English trans., New York 1941; id., Gênesis de los Ejercicios de S. Ignacio y su influjo en la fundación de la Compañía de Jesús, Rome 1941, Oña (Burgos) 1941; H. Flandra de la Boullaye, Les étapes de rédaction des Exercices de St Ignace, Paris 1945; I. Iparraguirre, Prática de los Ejercicios de S. Ignacio de Loyola en vida de su autor: 1522-56, Rome-Bilbao 1946; H. Rahner, Ignatius von Loyola und das geschichtliche Werden seiner Frömmigkeit, Graz 1947, French trans. 1948; P. de Leturia, Origine e senso sociale dell'apostolato di S. I. di L. in Roma, in Miscellanea Pio Paschini, II, Rome 1949, pp. 223-40; I. Ortiz de Urbina, S. I. y los Orientales, Madrid 1950; J. de Guibert, St Ignace mystique, Toulouse 1950; P. Leturia, S. I. di L. e l'Anno Santo 1950, in Civ. Catt., 1950, IV, pp. 609-15; 726-37.