St. Ignatius of Loyola

Their story

Iñigo de Loyola was born in 1491 in the Basque country of northern Spain, the youngest of thirteen children of a noble family. He grew up dreaming of glory as a soldier and courtier. In 1521, while defending the town of Pamplona against a French army, he was struck by a cannonball that shattered his leg. During his long recovery at the family castle, Ignatius asked for romance novels to pass the time, but the only books available were a life of Christ and stories of the saints. As he read, he began to notice that daydreams of worldly glory left him empty, while thoughts of following Christ like the saints left him full of peace and joy. This was the beginning of his gift for discernment. When he recovered, he laid down his sword before an image of Mary at the shrine of Montserrat and spent nearly a year praying in a cave at Manresa. There he wrote down the experiences that became his Spiritual Exercises, a way of prayer that has helped countless people find God's will. Ignatius went back to school as an adult, eventually studying at the University of Paris, where he gathered a group of companions, including St. Francis Xavier. In 1540 the pope approved their new community, the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits. Ignatius led them from Rome for sixteen years as they founded schools, served the poor and spread the Gospel across the world, all "for the greater glory of God." He died on July 31, 1556, and was canonized in 1622.