Loyola, Sanctuary of

LOYOLA, SANCTUARY of. — It is situated in a verdant valley in the province of Guipúzcoa and in the diocese of S. Sebastiano, in Spain. Its principal part is the so-called “S. Casa,” that is, the palace-castle of the L., where s. Ignatius was born and spent the years of his childhood.

It is a building constructed up to the first floor with the massive stones of the nearby Mount Izarraitz; on the second floor the construction is in brick, with four characteristic turrets at the sides. Here s. Ignatius was brought by the French soldiers after being wounded in the defeat at Pamplona; on the second floor Ignatius underwent his conversion while reading the Lives of the saints. The house had its own small private oratory, still preserved on the first floor, with a devout painting of the Annunciation. In this oratory s. Francis Borgia celebrated his first Mass. The S. Casa was entirely consecrated to worship only in 1628, following an internal transformation. That year the Jesuits settled there, having received it as a gift from Anna Maria of Austria, mother of Charles II. A large church was then built, now

a basilica, to a design by Carlo Fontana. Both the interior and the exterior are in a majestic Baroque style, and the dome in particular is austere and harmonious. The church, begun in 1689, was inaugurated in 1738; it stands at the center of a large building completed only in 1888 and used as a Jesuit novitiate, except for the period 1767–1817, when they were expelled from Spain by order of Charles III, until the time of their restoration under Pius VII. Today the building also serves as a house for spiritual exercises. A second building has recently been constructed beside it for Jesuit students. L. is the destination of frequent pilgrimages. Particularly characteristic is the procession that sets out each year on 1 August from Aspeitia, to whose municipality L. belongs. BIRL.: R. Pérez, La S. Casa de L., Bilbao 1891. Ignazio Ortiz de Urbina