HIS ARRIVAL IN HIS NATIVE LAND AND THE VIRTUES PRACTISED THERE--HIS
JOURNEY INTO SPAIN AND ITALY--THE FAMOUS APPARITION AND HIS LIFE IN
THE SAME PLACE
After the event related in the last chapter, Ignatius mounted the
little horse which his companions had purchased for him, and began his
journey toward his native land. Even on the way he found his health
improving. As soon as he arrived in the province of Guipuscoa, his
native country, abandoning the common highway he followed a road
through the mountains because it was less frequented. He had advanced
a short distance by this path when he saw two armed men approaching.
The place was famous as the haunt of murderers. The men passed him a
little and then turning, hurried after him. He was not a little
frightened, but still, addressing them, he learned that they were his
brother's servants sent to meet him. For he had reason to believe that
a warning of his coming was sent to his brother from Bayonne in
France, where he had been recognized by several persons. Still
Ignatius kept on in the direction he had taken, and shortly before he
arrived in the town he met some priests coming to meet him. They
wished to bring him to his brother's home; but their efforts were
unavailing. He went to a public hospital, and afterward, at a suitable
time, begged for alms through the town.
Many came to see him in the hospital. He spoke to them, and through
God's grace gathered no little fruit. Upon his arrival, he resolved to
teach the Christian doctrine to children every day. His brother
objected to this, and assured him that no one would come. In answer
Ignatius said, "One is enough for me." However, as soon as he began to
teach, many came regularly, his brother among the number. In addition
to this, on Sundays and feast days, he also preached to the people
with great fruit, and thousands came many miles to hear him. He
labored also for the removal of many abuses, and through God's grace
good results were obtained in many cases. To give an example: By his
representations to the governor he obtained an order forbidding
gambling and other disorders, under great penalties. He took means
that the poor should be provided for publicly and regularly, and that
thrice a day, morning, noon, and evening, according to the Roman
custom, a signal should be given by ringing a bell for the recital of
the Angelus by the people.
Although at first he enjoyed good health, he afterward fell seriously
ill. For this reason, after his recovery, he determined to depart in
order to accomplish the business which he had undertaken for his
companions. He resolved to set out on foot and without money. His
brother was grieved at this, and looked on it as a disgrace to
himself. Ignatius concluded to yield this point, and at last, toward
evening, he consented to be carried to the boundary of the province in
company with his brother and relatives.
But as soon as he had left the province, he dismounted and without
receiving any sustenance for the journey he set out for Pampeluna and
thence to Almazonus, the birthplace of Father Laynez. Then he traveled
on to Siguensa and to Toledo, and afterward from Toledo to Valencia.
In all these cities, the birthplaces of his companions, he would
receive nothing from their parents and relations, although they
offered him a great many things, and begged him to accept them. At
Valencia he had a conversation with Castro. When ready to embark at
Valencia to sail to Genoa, several of his well-wishers dissuaded him,
because, as they asserted, the Barbary pirates were on the sea with
many large ships. However, though they said a great deal to inspire
fear, still he did not hesitate. Having gone aboard a vessel, a great
storm arose during the voyage. This was mentioned before, where
Ignatius describes the three occasions on which he was in danger of
death. On this journey he suffered a great deal, as I shall now
relate. One day after landing he wandered from his path and followed a
road which ran along the bank of a river. The road was high, while far
below was the river deep and sluggish. The farther he advanced, the
narrower grew the road. At last he came to a spot where he could
neither go forward nor backward. He then began to advance on hands and
feet and continued thus for a long time, full of fear. For as often as
he moved it seemed to him that he would fall into the river. This was
the greatest of all the bodily labors that he ever experienced. At
last he escaped, but just as he was entering Bologna he fell from a
little bridge and was so wet and dirty from the mud and water as to
afford much laughter to a great crowd who observed the accident. From
his entrance into Bologna until his departure he begged for alms, and
though he went through the whole city, he did not receive so much as a
farthing. As he was ill, he rested for a while at Bologna. Thence he
directed his steps toward Venice, traveling always in the same way. At
Venice he spent his time in giving the Exercises and in other
spiritual works. Those to whom he gave the Exercises were Peter
Contarenus, Gaspar a Doctis, Rozes a Spaniard, and another Spaniard
named Hozes, who, like the pilgrim, was a great friend of the bishop.
Hozes at first would not make the Exercises, although he felt drawn to
do so. At last he resolved to undertake the work, and on the third or
fourth day he opened his mind to Ignatius. He said that he had feared
that by the Exercises his mind might be imbued with false doctrines.
Indeed, he had been persuaded by a man to be on his guard, and for
this reason he had brought along with him a book to use in case he
were imposed on. He made great progress in the Exercises, and finally
embraced that manner of life which Ignatius had established. He was
the first of the companions of the Saint to die.
At Venice another persecution was stirred up against Ignatius. Some
asserted that he had been burned in effigy both in Spain and in Paris.
The matter went so far that he was brought to trial, but obtained a
favorable sentence. At the beginning of the year 1538 the nine
companions came to Venice and were scattered about the city in various
hospitals to minister to the sick. After two or three months all
journeyed to Rome to receive the Pope's blessing before going to
Jerusalem. Ignatius, however, did not go to Rome on account of Doctor
Ortiz and the Theatine Cardinal recently raised to that dignity. The
companions on their return brought the value of two or three hundred
gold crowns which had been given to them as alms for their projected
journey to Jerusalem. They would accept it only in the form of bills,
and when they were unable to make the voyage to Jerusalem they
returned it to those who had made the gift. They returned to Venice
in the same manner that they had set out for Rome. They traveled on
foot and begging, divided into three parties, as they were of
different nationalities. Those who were not priests were ordained at
Venice, having received faculties from the Nuncio, who was then in
that city and who was afterward called Cardinal Verallus. They were
promoted to the priesthood _sub titulo paupertatis_, having made vows
of poverty and chastity. That year no ships left for the East, on
account of the breach of the treaty between the Venetians and Turks.
When, therefore, they saw their hopes deferred, they dispersed into
various parts of the Venetian territory, with the understanding that
they should wait one year, as they had previously resolved; when that
time had elapsed, they were to return to Rome if it was not possible
to make the voyage. Vicenza fell to the lot of Ignatius. His
companions were Faber and Laynez. Outside of the city they found a
house that had neither door nor windows. Here they lived, sleeping on
a little straw which they had brought with them. Two of the three
entered the city twice daily, in the morning and evening, to ask for
alms. They returned with so little that it hardly sufficed for their
nourishment. Their usual food was bread, when they could get it. The
one who chanced to remain at home did the baking. In this way they
spent forty days, intent upon nothing but prayer.
After the forty days were over, Master John Codurus arrived, and the
four determined to begin preaching. On the same day and at the same
hour, in different squares, all began to preach, having first uttered
a great cry, and having waved their hats with their hands to call the
people. These sermons caused great talk in the city, and led many
citizens to a devout life. Now the needed nourishment was supplied to
them more abundantly. While the pilgrim was at Vicenza, he had many
spiritual visions. Consolations were sent to him in great number. This
was especially so at Venice, while he was preparing for the priesthood
and for celebrating Mass. On all his journeys, he received great
supernatural visitations, like those which he had been wont to receive
at Manresa.
While still at Venice he learned that one of his companions was sick
unto death at Bassanum. He was himself ill with fever, still he
undertook the journey, and walked so rapidly that Faber, his
companion, was unable to keep up with him. On the way he received an
assurance from God that his companion would not die of this illness.
As soon as they arrived at Bassanum, the sick man was very much
consoled, and not long after grew better. After this, all returned to
Vicenza, and there the ten tarried for a while, some going about the
neighboring towns to beg for alms.
In the year that passed, as no means could be had of journeying to
Jerusalem, they set out on their way to Rome, divided into three or
four parties. On the journey Ignatius experienced singular visitations
from God. After his reception of the priesthood, he had resolved to
put off the offering of his first Mass for one year, in order to
prepare himself better, and to ask the Most Blessed Virgin to place
him near her Son. One day, when he was a few miles from Rome, he
entered a church to pray, and there felt his soul so moved and
changed, and saw so clearly that God the Father placed him with Christ
His Son, that he did not dare to doubt it. When Ignatius was told
that several other details were related by Laynez, he replied:
"Whatever Laynez said about the matter is true. For my part, I do not
remember the particulars; but," he added, "I know for certain that
when I related what happened I told nothing but the truth." These were
his words about the vision. He referred me to Laynez to verify what he
narrated.
Once Ignatius left Rome for Monte Cassino, to give the Exercises to
Doctor Ortiz, and spent forty days there. One day, at a certain hour,
in a vision, he saw Hozes entering heaven. In this vision he shed
abundant tears of consolation. He saw this so clearly that if he were
to say the contrary, it would seem to him as if he were telling a lie.
He brought with him from Monte Cassino Francis Strada. After his
return to Rome, he labored for the help of souls, and gave the
Exercises to two different persons, one of whom dwelt near the Sixtine
Bridge, the other near the Church of St. Mary Major. Soon the people
began to persecute Ignatius and his companions. Michael was the first
of all to be troublesome and to speak wickedly of Ignatius, and had
him summoned before the governor for trial. Ignatius showed the
governor a letter written by the same Michael, in which he commended
Ignatius very highly. The governor examined Michael, and the result
was that he was exiled from Rome. After him followed Mindarra and
Berrera, who said that Ignatius and his companions were fugitives from
Spain, Paris, and Venice. Finally, however, in the presence of the
governor and ambassador then at Rome, both acknowledged that they had
nothing which they could say against them with regard to their
doctrines or their lives. The ambassador ordered this lawsuit to be
abandoned. Ignatius objected, saying that he wished the sentence to be
made clear and public. This did not please the ambassador and the
governor, nor even those who had previously taken sides with Ignatius.
A few months afterward the Roman Pontiff returned. While he was at
Tusculum Ignatius was admitted to an audience with the Holy Father,
and having given some of his reasons, he obtained what he wished. The
Pope ordered sentence to be passed, and it was given in favor of
Ignatius and his companions.
Through the labors of Ignatius and his companions, certain pious works
were established at Rome, as that of Catechumens, that of St. Martha,
and that of the Orphans. Master Natalis can tell the rest.
APPENDIX
ST. IGNATIUS AND HIS WORK FOR EDUCATION
In the kingdom of Navarre, in the north of Spain, among those
mountains whence the armorers of Toledo drew their metal and forged
for the world their trenchant steel, in a region where the generous,
passionate, valiant people seemed to have formed their character on
the austere grandeur of nature itself, St. Ignatius was born.
The world represents him as a man of few and stern words, in
appearance severe and dark, and yet a man in whom intellect is ever
prominent, but intellect elevated by the grandeur of a soul of
chivalry and by an exquisite delicacy of charity--this was the real
character of St. Ignatius. This will be seen in the brief glimpse
given of his life and his spirit of charity, his absorbing love for
souls, in his work of founding missions, his greatness of mind and
heart, in the work originated by him, and carried on by his followers,
in the cause of higher education.
His character stands prominently on the horizon of history. He cannot
be ignored, nor is his existence or his work ignored.
His enemies have not passed him by without notice, and his friends,
the friends of God, have rejoiced that, as God sent him forth to teach
and produce fruit that the fruit might remain, the fruit has remained.
St. Ignatius sends his voice down the centuries as a great
individuality. He has spoken as a man of God, as a man of ideas, a man
of energy. He has made his influence felt throughout the universe,
not only in the civilized world, but in the uncivilized portion, to
bring it into civilization, or to bear to it the advantages of
civilization.
Other great men have spoken and have sent forth their influence.
Theirs has been a message to the civilized world; it has been limited
to one point of view. It has been prowess on the battlefield or on the
seas, work in the ship of state or in the fields of science. But
Ignatius has not been limited to any one of these. He is the founder
of a Religious Order that has sent pioneers into all these fields and
forests of valor or research; he is the writer of the Spiritual
Exercises that have won a fame gained by but few authors; he is the
father of many saints; he is the educator of generations; he is the
inspirer of scientific, literary, theological, philosophical
investigation, and the promoter of discoverers and of pioneer
missionaries in the Old and the New World.
Ignatius was born, in 1491, at the château of Loyola, and at fifteen
years of age he was a page in the court of King Ferdinand, and then a
soldier under the Duke of Navarre, his relative. The army of Francis I
penetrated into Navarre, and, at the siege of Pampeluna, Ignatius,
Captain of Infantry, was wounded by a cannon ball. His life is given
in the preceding pages.
I shall refer only briefly to it, and to his conversion. He was a
young knight fond of gayety and feats of arms, and for some time after
he received the wound he was confined to his bed while his broken leg
was set; and while awaiting his slow recovery he read the lives of the
saints and of Christ, as these were the books given to him in place of
the novels he had asked for, as no others were in the house.
In reading the lives of the saints his heart was touched. His eyes
were opened to the vanity of life and the reality of eternity
compared with the worldliness of the life he had been leading.
Inspired with enthusiasm at the lives of the saints, he said, "What
they have done, I can do." The event of his life proved the
earnestness of his purpose.
He resolved to undertake a life of penance and self-denial, and, while
occupied with these holy resolutions, he wrote in a book the principal
events of the life of Christ and His glorious Mother. It was at this
time that Our Lord sent him a vision to strengthen and console him. He
beheld one night, as he was holding his vigils, the glorious Queen of
the angels, who appeared to him holding in her arms her Blessed Son,
enlightening him with the splendor of glory and charming him by her
sweet presence.
To her he ascribes the inspiration of the Spiritual Exercises, and his
Order, imitating its founder, has shown the most unbounded affection
and devoted filial love toward the Virgin Mother of Christ.
* * * * *
At Alcala St. Ignatius studied, and there won for the Society of
Jesus, Laynez, Salmeron, and Babadilla. He afterward founded there a
college where Vasquez, Suarez, and St. Francis Borgia expounded the
Holy Scriptures. St. Ignatius sent Father de Torres to Salamanca to
found the famous college where the illustrious professors, Cardinal de
Lugo, Francis Suarez, Maldonatus, Gregory of Valencia, Francis Ribera,
and many other illustrious men were professors.
* * * * *
At the University of Paris, in 1534, on the 14th of March, St.
Ignatius received the degree of Master of Arts and Doctor of
Philosophy, having received the degree of Bachelor of Arts two years
before. The University of Paris had the honor of having as pupils St.
Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier, Peter Faber, Claude le Jay, Simon
Rodriguez, John Codura, Paschasius, Brouet, Martin Olave, all honored
with the academic degree.
* * * * *
Among the earlier colleges founded by St. Ignatius were the
following:--
In 1542 the College of Coimbra, in Portugal, arose. In 1546 St.
Francis Borgia founded the College of Gandia. In 1556 the College of
Ingolstadt was founded. In 1552 a college was founded at Vienna, and
in 1556 one at Prague. In 1553 the Roman College was fully founded.
And in 1568 the colleges at Lima, Peru.
* * * * *
The German College founded in Rome by St. Ignatius produced many
remarkable men.
From it came 1 pope, Gregory XV, 24 cardinals, 6 electors of the
Empire, 19 princes, 21 archbishops, 121 titular bishops, 100 bishops
in _partibus infidelium_, 6 abbots or generals of religious orders,
11 martyrs of faith, 13 martyrs of charity, and 55 others, conspicuous
for piety and learning.
This was at the end of the eighteenth century. In our own time in one
classroom Father Cardella counted seventeen different orders of all
different nationalities present at the lectures of theology in the
Roman College.
* * * * *
The Roman College was the type of the Jesuit College. It was begun by
Francis Borgia, in 1551, at the foot of the Capitol in Rome, with
fourteen members of the Order and Father John Peltier, a Frenchman, as
Superior.
The professors taught rhetoric and three languages,--Hebrew, Greek,
and Latin. There were present there at a given time 2107 students, 300
in theology. The most eminent professors filled the chairs:
theologians like Suarez and Vasquez; commentators such as Cornelius à
Lapide and Maldonatus; founders of national history schools, as
Mariana and Pallavicini; Clavius, reformer of the Gregorian Calendar;
Kircher, universal in the exact sciences, while the other colleges
throughout the world remained provided with their own required forces
and maintained their own prestige.
* * * * *
From this college came forth distinguished men in every line of
intellectual life, and general eminence, men of elevated thought and
of noble and generous minds. In particular three characters
came--young men that were to fill with admiration of their greatness
the succeeding century.
Stanislaus Kostka, a Polish noble who died at seventeen years of age;
Aloysius Gonzaga, an Italian prince of twenty-three; and John
Berchmans, a Flemish townsman of twenty-two.
Among some of the famous men educated by the Jesuits we find Bossuet,
Corneille, Molière, Tasso, Fontenelle, Diderot, Voltaire, and
Bourdaloue, himself a Jesuit.
* * * * *
When Père Porée replied to the remark that he was not one of the great
poets, he said, "At least you may grant that I have been able to make
some of them." A few others were Descartes, Buffon, Justus Lipsius,
Muratori the historian, Calderon, and Vico, the author of "Ideas of
History," Richelieu, Tilly, Malesherbes, Don John of Austria,
Luxembourg, Esterhazy, Choiseul, St. Francis de Sales, Lambertini,
afterward Benedict XIV, the most learned of the popes, and the present
Pontiff, Pope Leo XIII, renowned for his learning and wisdom.
Nearly all the Jesuit writers had been Jesuit professors, with almost
no exception, and nearly all had taught humanities, belles-lettres,
and rhetoric. Father Southwell in 1676 numbers 2240 authors, and
Father de Backer in 1876 counts 11,100.
AUTHORS
We find some remarkable authors among the Jesuit writers. Foremost
come the Bollandists, renowned throughout the world for their
monumental work, the "Acta Sanctorum." Similar gigantic works were
carried on by Fathers de Backer, Sommervogel, and Pachtler. In the
various branches of learning we need mention a few of the greater
writers.
In astronomy, we find Ricci, Perry, De Vico, Secchi, Curley, Sestini.
In mathematics, Hagen, Algué.
In naval tactics, "The Jesuit's Book."
In archæology, Garucci, Marchi, the master of De Rossi.
In Oriental languages, Strassmaier, Harvas, Maas, Van den Gheyn.
In theology, Suarez, Vasquez, Toletus, Maldonatus, Franzelin.
In philosophy, Cominbricenses, Liberatore.
In moral philosophy, Busenbaum, Gury, Toledo, Ballerini, Layman,
Lehmkuhl, Genicot.
In asceticism, Alvarez de Paz, Gaudier, Rodriguez, Scaramelli, Grou.
The Spiritual Exercises comprise a whole library. Father Watragan has
written a work merely to record the editions and commentaries on these
Exercises.
THE EDUCATIONAL PLAN OF ST. IGNATIUS
St. Ignatius had gathered about him a body of picked men. The Roman
College, the type of colleges of Jesuit education, would have for its
professors only those who had been doctors of the University of
Paris.
The outline of the course of education was given by St. Ignatius. It
was completed and developed by Aquaviva. The work was still more
perfected by Father Laynez, of whom it is said,--
"St. Ignatius praised him not only on account of other great merits,
but particularly for devising and arranging the system of colleges."
As to the number of students found under a unified method of thorough
teaching, it will be interesting to take them in review.
In Rome in 1584, the twenty colleges attending classes in the Roman
College numbered 2108 students, in Poland there were 10,000 young men
chiefly of the nobility, at Rome 2000, at La Flèche 1700. In the
seventeenth century at the College of Louis le Grand, in Paris, the
number varied between 2000 and 3000. In 1627 the Province of Paris had
in fourteen colleges 13,195 students.
The papal seminaries under Gregory XIII, at Vienna, Dillengen, Fulda,
Prague, Grätz, Olmütz, Wilna, as well as in Japan, were directed by
the Fathers, as also that of Pius V and of St. Charles Borromeo at
Milan.
Taking an average, there were more than two hundred thousand students
being educated in these educational institutions.
A comparison could be made on this basis of the work done by the Order
and that which is accomplished by Oxford.
If Oxford spends annually a revenue of $2,500,000 to supply facilities
for higher education to two thousand of the nobility and gentry, how
much would be required to educate a quarter of a million
students,--not two thousand, but two hundred and fifty thousand?
The fundamental principles in the educational institute of St.
Ignatius were these:--
First, solidity and thoroughness.
The first condition of all higher studies as well as of lower studies
was such that, as St. Ignatius said, "It was useless to begin at the
top, as the edifice without a good foundation would never stand."
Let literature and philosophy be gone through with satisfactorily, and
then theology may be approached.
Literature must come first of all. St. Ignatius provides for law and
medicine, but by professors of law and medicine outside of the Order;
but no professors of the Order were sent for work outside of Jesuit
institutions. If the younger men were sent abroad, the younger
generation would be deprived of that type; and if eminent men were
sent forth without a permanent Jesuit College, the work would not be
that of the Order, but of scattered individuals, and would soon
perish.
In the cause of education St. Ignatius had placed in his charter the
watchwords "Defence and Advance." As a leader of a military type he
had gathered about him the flower of youth and of mature age, from
college and university, from doctor's chair and prince's throne, and
in fifteen years from the foundation of the Order left one hundred
colleges and houses in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Sicily, Germany,
France, Brazil, and the East Indies. Xavier traveled from India and
Ceylon, in the west, to Malucca, Japan, and the coast of China on the
east. Wherever the energy and activity of Apostolic zeal penetrated it
was with the purpose, and usually the result, of permanent Apostolic
work in the foundation of educational institutions. Father de Backer
says,--
"Wherever a Jesuit set his foot, wherever there was founded a house, a
college, a mission, there too came apostles of another class, who
labored, who taught, who wrote."
This is true even to our day where in the Rocky Mountains, beside the
mission house of Spokane Falls, rises the Jesuit College of Spokane.
Sixty years later than the time of St. Ignatius there were 272
colleges, and in 150 years the collegiate and university houses of
education numbered 769.
"Looking at these seven hundred institutions of secondary and superior
education," says Father Thomas Hughes in his work on Loyola, "in their
scope of legislative executive power we find they were not so much a
plurality of institutions as a single one.
"If we look at the 92 colleges in France, although the University of
Paris was in one quarter of the city, and in that sense materially
one,--although including 50 colleges,--yet in the formal and essential
bond these 92 Jesuit colleges were vastly more of a unit as an
identical educational power than any faculty existing. No faculty at
Paris, Rome, Salamanca, or Oxford ever preserved the control over its
50, 20, or 8 colleges that each Provincial exercised over his 10, 20,
or 30 colleges, or the general of the Order over the 700 colleges,
with 22,126 members in the Order."
At the present day we find the Jesuit colleges in almost every part of
the known world. In Rome and in China, in South Africa and North
America, in the Philippine Islands as well as in Ceylon and Egypt, in
Australia and Cuba, as well as in Syria and the city of New York.
We may glance briefly at the colleges scattered over the world,
containing to-day 52,692 Jesuit pupils.
This is a larger number than those taught at Oxford and Cambridge and
Glasgow and Harvard or Yale or Princeton or in Paris and Edinburgh.
In the Jesuit College at Rome there are 2082 students.
In Brazil, 757
Naples, 960
Denver, 100
Sicily, 376
Turin, 516
California, 850
Rocky Mountains, 72
Venice, 520
Mangalore (India), 483
Austria, 1746
Egypt, 500
Toulouse, 1581
Madura, 1800
Aragon, 1414
Manila
Philippine Islands,
Municipal Atheneum, 1123
Normal School, 680
Chili and Paraguay, 4913
Castile, 2073
Cuba, Havana, and Cienfuegos, 397
Colombia, 766
Portugal, 560
Belgium, 6658
Bengal, 983
Ceylon, 35
Galicia, 474
Germany, 3443
Holland, 613
France, 3384
China, 122
Lyons, 2191
Syria, 608
Mexico, 684
Toledo, 782
Ecuador and Peru, 820
England, 1454
Zambesi, 64
Ireland, 883
Australia, 447
New York and Maryland, 2815
Jamaica, West Indies, 60
Missouri, 2061
B. Honduras, 2122
Canada, 511
New Orleans, 504
Thus the total number of students--studying with professors of the
Society of Jesus under one university system in all parts of the known
world--is 52,692.
There has been no going back. Fifty years ago, when the groundwork of
rebuilding the 700 institutions that had been destroyed by the
suppression had to be commenced all over again, there were but 15,000,
to-day there are 52,692.
St. Ignatius was born in 1491. The first College of Coimbra was
founded in 1542. From 1542 to 1773 is a period of 231 years. The
suppression lasted from 1773 to 1814 (41 years). The new work
continued from 1814 to 1899, a period of 85 years.
Among the colleges founded in the chief cities of the world are Loyola
College, at Loyola in Spain; St. Omer's College, in Belgium, the link
between Europe and America; Stonyhurst College, in England; Clongoes
Wood, Ireland; Mangalore, in India, the only first-grade college in
the district; Melbourne, Australia; St. Ignatius College, California,
the pioneer of Pacific coast missions and of the Rocky Mountains; at
Kansas City the only boarding college in the far West; St. Ignatius,
at Cleveland, Ohio, one of the latest Western colleges; Spring Hill
College, at Mobile, Alabama; Georgetown College, at Washington, D.C.;
Holy Cross College, at Worcester, Massachusetts; St. John's College,
at Fordham, New York; St. Francis Xavier's College, in New York City.
In the proportion mentioned above, in the same period (that is, a
period of 231 years), there will be in the Jesuit colleges 263,690
pupils.
St. Ignatius died July 31, 1556. He was sixty-five years of age. At
the age of thirty he hung up his sword at Montserrat, and, with ready
mind and heart and pen, in thirty-five years he achieved the gigantic
work of the founding and developing the Order. The educational work
was projected and advanced in a brief period of fifteen years, from
1542 to 1556.
He was a man of prudence and deliberation, and of unswerving decision.
Vigilant and patient, whenever he appeared account had to be taken of
the man; and so with his Order, whenever it appears it is to be
recognized either by foes to oppose it or friends to love it and
forward its work. It has its churches--its missions--its colleges. In
its churches it is faithful to the teaching of Christ and His Church,
loyal ever to the Vicar of Christ; in its missions, unbounded in zeal
and personal self-sacrifice; in its colleges, it aims ever at the
solid and thorough training of complete Christian education. Ignatius
of Loyola made his Order to go on without him, and it goes on just as
he made it.
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