LEDÓCHOWSKI, WŁODZIMIERZ. — Twenty-sixth Superior General of the Society of Jesus, born at Loosdorf (Austria) on 7 October 1866, died in Rome on 13 December 1942. He served as a page at the court of Emperor Franz Joseph and attended the «Theresianum» in Vienna; he studied law at the Seminary of Tarnovia and philosophy at the Gregorian University in Rome, as a student of the German College. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1889 and completed his studies; thereafter, from 1897, he was a writer and then successively rector of the residence and of the College of Kraków, and provincial of Galicia. In 1906 he was elected «Assistant» for Germany; on 11 February 1915, Superior General of the Order. In this capacity he lived always in Rome, except for a brief stay at Zizers (Switzerland) during the period of the First World War (1915–18).
During his government he zealously and steadfastly promoted a great series of works, in which he displayed a remarkable insight into the needs of the times and into the character and abilities of his subjects, so as to respond to them. He brought to completion the revision of the Society’s law in accordance with the new CIC; he inculcated the study and following of s. Thomas Aquinas, wisely defined and clarified according to the spirit of the Church; he ardently promoted the Marian Congregations, the work of the Spiritual Exercises, the Apostleship of Prayer, and the development and support of the missions; he encouraged in every way popular and scholarly publishing activity in defence of the Church and to oppose deviations of every kind. Under him, the Society was entrusted with the Oriental Institute and the Russian College; the General Curia and the Gregorian University acquired new premises. The statistics show that his government was one of the most fruitful: in 1915 there were 5 assistancies, 27 provinces, and 16,946 members; in 1941 the figures were respectively 8, 50, and 26,588; the missions entrusted to the Jesuits increased from 29 to 46, and the missionaries from 971 to 3,785. At his death, the Society’s educational activity comprised, not counting the missions, 15 universities and 421 secondary institutions with 138,800 pupils; its literary activity included 1,112 periodicals in 50 languages and countless works. The most significant innovation was the admission of, and granting of faculties to, a considerable number of his subjects to profess the Eastern rite. Also to be added is the splendid crown of saints and blessed whose proclamation was obtained, among them s. R. Bellarmino, s. P. Canisio, the ss. Canadian-American Martyrs, b. C. La Colombière, b. G. Pignatelli, and numerous martyrs of England and Scotland.