Inigo Lopez de Recalde, or Loyola, as he is commonly known, was born
at Guipuzcoa, in Spain, in 1491. He was educated as a page in the court
of Ferdinand the Catholic. He afterwards became a soldier and led a
very wild life until his twenty-ninth year. During the siege of
Pamplona, in 1521, he was severely wounded, and while convalescing he
was given lives of Christ and of the saints to read. His perusal of
these stories of spiritual combat inspired a determination to imitate
the glorious achievements of the saints. For a while the thirst for
military renown and an attraction toward a lady of the court,
restrained his spiritual impulses. But overcoming these obstacles, he
resolutely entered upon his new career.
Sometime after he visited the sanctuary of Montserrat, where he hung
his shield and sword upon the altar of the Virgin Mary and gave his
oath of fealty to the service of God. A tablet, erected by the abbot of
the monastery in commemoration of this event, reads as follows: “Here,
blessed Ignatius of Loyola, with many prayers and tears, devoted
himself to God and the Virgin. Here, as with spiritual arms, he
fortified himself in sackcloth, and spent the vigil of the night. Hence
he went forth to found the Society of Jesus, in the year MDXXII.”
After spending ten months in Manresa, Loyola went on a pilgrimage to
the Holy Land, intending to remain there, but he was sent home by the
Eastern monks, and reached Italy in 1524.
Now began his struggle for an education. At the age of thirty-three
he took his seat on the school-bench at Barcelona. In 1526 he entered
the University at Alcala. He was here looked upon as a dangerous
innovator, and was imprisoned six weeks, by order of the Inquisition,
for preaching without authority, since he was not in holy orders. After
his release he attended the University of Salamanca, but he finally
took his degree of Master of Arts at the University of Paris, in 1533.
During this period he was several times imprisoned as a dangerous
fanatic, but each time he succeeded in securing a verdict in his favor.
The hostility to Ignatius and his work forms a strange parallel to the
bitter antagonism which his society has always encountered.
Nine men, among whom was Francis Xavier, afterwards widely renowned,
had been chosen with great care, as the companions of Ignatius. He
called them together in July, 1534, and on August 15th of the same year
he selected six of them and bade them follow him to the Church of the
Blessed Virgin, at Montmartre, in Paris. There and then they bound
themselves to renounce all their goods, and to make a voyage to
Jerusalem, in order to convert the Eastern infidels; if that scheme
proved impracticable, they agreed to offer themselves to the sovereign
pontiff for any service he might require of them. War prevented the
journey to the Holy Land, and so, after passing through a variety of
experiences, Ignatius and his companions met at Rome, to secure the
sanction of Pope Paul III. for the new society. After a year and a half
of deliberation and discussion a favorable decision was reached, which
was, no doubt, partly facilitated by the growth of the Reformation. The
new society was chartered on September 27, 1540, for the “defence and
advance of the faith.”
Ignatius was elected as the general of the order and entered upon
his duties, April 17, 1541. He soon prepared a constitution which was
not adopted until after his death, and then in an amended form. Loyola
ended his remarkable and stormy career, July 31, 1556.