Ignatius of Loyola as a young soldier.

Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), more precisely Don Iñigo de Oñaz y Loyola, the youngest son of a Basque nobleman, was born in the Castle of Loyola, in the province of Guipuzcoa. He received courtly training on the virtues of gentlemanly conduct in Arevalo.

Ignatius preferred an adventurous life and became weary of the frivolities of courtly life which did not satisfy him. He preferred to gain military fame. Thus he joined the services of Emperor Charles V and distinguished himself by daring feats in battle.

In 1521, during the French siege of Pamplona, Ignatius was struck in his leg by a musket ball. During his long convalescence, Ignatius read the lives of Christ and the saints and turned his mind to fighting the Infidel.

In 1522, on recovering from his war wound, Iñigo visited the shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat and later moved to nearby Manresa, where he formulated the fundamentals of the Spiritual Exercises.

St Ignatius of Loyola – Founder of the Society of Jesus and counter-Reformation saint.

The 1520s and 1530s, the early phase of his vocation, Ignatius was convinced that his true mission was to travel to the Holy Land and spend the rest of his life in devotion and penance in Jerusalem.

He visited the Holy Land in 1523 but as his presence was not appreciated, he returned to Spain and turned to the study of Theology and Latin at the universities of Alcalá and later Salamanca.

By 1534 he moved to Paris, at a time when strong anti-Huguenot turmoil forced John Calvin to flee to Geneva. That year, Loyola and six companions took their vow at Montmartre and resolved to travel to Jerusalem.

They met in Venice in 1537 and sought the Pope’s blessing before embarking to the Holy Land but the raging Christian-Muslim conflict in the Mediterranean disrupted their plans. Ignatius and his companions remained in Venice where they took holy orders and never managed to leave for Jerusalem.

Pope Paul III approves the Society of Jesus on September 27, 1540. By kind permission of the Jesuit Institute, Berkshire, UK.

Ignatius’ personal concern with Protestantism induced him to found the Society of Jesus in 1539. The original foundation document was presented to Paul III – and officially approved in 1540. The bull Regimini militantis ecclesiae specifies that the purpose of the Society was for “the advancement of souls in Christian life and doctrine and… the propagation of the faith”.

True to this declaration the document mentioned pastoral work in Protestant countries as one major task in which the new Society might become involved, but it only came third in the priority list, after the mission to Islam, and the conversion of natives in the New World.

However, Ignatius was mainly concerned with missions towards the Levant and the Muslim world. Thus in 1546, he was prepared to resign his position as general of the Society in order to organise a mission to Ethiopia.

Ignatius and his companions profess their solemn vows on April 22, 1541, at St Paul’s Outside the Walls church, Rome. By kind permission of the Jesuit Institute, Berkshire, UK.

In 1550 he offered spiritual assistance to the viceroy of Sicily, Juan de Vega, then engaged in a military expedition in North Africa. Likewise he insisted upon founding Jesuit colleges in the Levant, and specifically in Cyprus, Constantinople and Jerusalem. He was particularly keen to hold a mission in North Africa in order to convert the Moors to Christianity.

Ignatius’ commitment to de­fend the faith emerged late in the 1540s, during a time when the Society was involved against here­sy in Italy and northern Europe.

Ignatius had some knowledge of Protestant views, having studied Theology in Paris and Venice, and urged his German companions to keep up-to-date with theological controversies. This might explain why Ignatius worked in favour of the establishment of the Roman Inquisition in 1542.

Throughout the following decade he not only directed Jesuit missions in Protestant lands but he was also instrumental in founding a college in Rome for training recruits from the various German provinces.

Despite this strong-willed determination to convert Protestants, Ignatius advised his companions to counter heresy by private conversation, by preaching on Catholic doctrines, by administering the sacraments, and above all by giving a good example of Christian life.

This definition was, however, revised in 1550 by Ignatius, who defined the purpose of the Society as… the defence and propagation of the faith and… the advancement of souls.

Ignatius was beatified by Paul V in 1609, and canonised by Gregory XV in 1622. His feast is commemorated on July 31, the day of his death.

Carmel Cassar is an associate professor at the University of Malta.