The conversion of many barbarous nations, several heretofore unknown
to us, both in the most remote eastern and western hemisphere; the
education of youth in learning and piety, the instruction of the
ignorant, the improvement of all the sciences, and the reformation of
the manners of a great part of Christendom, is the wonderful fruit of
the zeal with which this glorious saint devoted himself to labor in
exalting the glory of God, and in spreading over the whole world that
fire which Christ himself came to kindle on earth. St. Ignatius was
born in 1491, in the castle of Loyola, in Guipuscoa, a part of Biscay
that reaches to the Pyrenean mountains. His father, Don Bertram,
was lord of Ognez and Loyola, head of one of the most ancient and
noble families of that country. His mother, Mary Saez de Balde, was
not less illustrious by her extraction. They had three daughters
and eight sons. The youngest of all these was Inigo or Ignatius; he
was well shaped, and in his childhood gave proofs of a pregnant wit
and discretion above his years; was affable and obliging, but of a
warm or choleric disposition, and had an ardent passion for glory.
He was bred in the court of Ferdinand V. in quality of page to the
king, under the care and protection of Antony Manriquez, duke of
Najara, grandee of Spain, who was his kinsman and patron; and who,
perceiving his inclinations, led him to the army, took care to have
him taught all the exercises proper to make him an accomplished
officer. The love of glory and the example of his elder brothers who
had signalized themselves in the wars of Naples, made him impatient
till he entered the service. He behaved with great valor and conduct
in the army, especially at the taking of Najara, a small town on the
frontiers of Biscay; yet he generously declined taking any part of
the booty in which he might have challenged the greatest share. He
hated gaming as an offspring of avarice, and a source of quarrels and
other evils; was dexterous in the management of affairs, and had an
excellent talent in making up differences among the soldiers. He was
generous, even towards enemies, but addicted to gallantry, and full
of the maxims of worldly honor, vanity, and pleasures. Though he had
no tincture of learning, he made tolerably good verses in Spanish,
having a natural genius for poetry. A poem which he composed in
praise of St. Peter was much commended.
Charles V., who had succeeded king Ferdinand, was chosen emperor, and
obliged to go into Germany. Francis I., king of France, a martial
prince, having been his competitor for the empire, resented his
disappointment, and became an implacable enemy to the emperor and
the house of Austria. He declared war against Charles, with a view
to recover Navarre, of which Ferdinand had lately dispossessed John
of Albert, and which Charles still held, contrary to the treaty
of Noyon, by which he was obliged to restore it in six months.
Francis, therefore, in 1521, sent a great army into Spain, under the
command of Andrew de Foix, younger brother of the famous Lautrec,
who, passing the Pyrenees, laid siege to Pampeluna, the capital of
Navarre. Ignatius had been left there by the viceroy, not to command,
but to encourage the garrison. He did all that lay in his power to
persuade them to defend the city, but in vain. However, when he saw
them open the gates to the enemy, to save his own honor, he retired
into the citadel with one only soldier who had the heart to follow
him. The garrison of this fortress deliberated likewise whether
they should surrender, but Ignatius encouraged them to stand their
ground. The French attacked the place with great fury, and with their
artillery made a wide breach in the wall, and attempted to take
it by assault. Ignatius appeared upon the breach, at the head of
the bravest part of the garrison, and, with his sword in his hand,
endeavored to drive back the enemy; but, in the heat of the combat, a
shot from a cannon broke from the wall a bit of stone, which struck
and bruised his left leg; and the ball itself in the rebound broke
and shivered his right leg. The garrison seeing him fall, surrendered
at discretion.
The French used their victory with moderation, and treated the
prisoners well, especially Ignatius, in consideration of his quality
and valor. They carried him to the general’s quarters, and soon after
sent him, in a litter carried by two men, to the castle of Loyola,
which was not far from Pampeluna. Being arrived there he felt great
pain; for the bones had been ill set, as is often the case in the
hurry after a battle. The surgeons therefore judged it necessary to
break his leg again, which he suffered without any concern. But a
violent fever followed the second setting, which was attended with
dangerous symptoms, and reduced him to an extreme degree of weakness,
so that the physicians declared that he could not live many days.
He received the sacraments on the eve of the feast of SS. Peter
and Paul, and it was believed he could not hold out till the next
morning. Nevertheless God, who had great designs of mercy upon him,
was pleased to restore him to his health in the following manner:
Ignatius always had a singular devotion to St. Peter, and implored
his intercession in his present distress with great confidence. In
the night, he thought he saw in a dream that apostle touch him, and
cure him. When he awaked he found himself out of danger; his pains
left him, and his strength began to return, so that he ever after
looked upon this recovery as miraculous; yet he still retained the
spirit of the world. After the second setting of his leg, the end
of a bone stuck out under his knee, which was a visible deformity.
Though the surgeons told him the operation would be very painful,
this protuberance he caused to be cut off, merely that his boot and
stockings might sit handsomely; and he would neither be bound nor
held, and scarce ever changed countenance whilst the bone was partly
sawed and partly cut off, though the pain must have been excessive.
Because his right leg remained shorter than the left, he would be for
many days together put upon a kind of rack, and with an iron engine
he violently stretched and drew out that leg; but all to little
purpose, for he remained lame his whole life after.
During the cure of his knee he was confined to his bed, though
otherwise in perfect health, and finding the time tedious, he called
for some book of romances, for he had been always much delighted
with fabulous histories of knight-errantry. None such being then
found in the castle of Loyola, a book of the lives of our Saviour,
and of the saints, was brought him. He read them first, only to
pass away the time, but afterward began to relish them and to spend
whole days in reading them. He chiefly admired in the saints their
love of solitude and of the cross. He considered among the anchorets
many persons of quality who buried themselves alive in caves and
dens, pale with fasting, and covered with haircloth; and he said to
himself, “These men were of the same frame I am of; why then should
not I do what they have done?” In the fervor of his good resolutions
he thought of visiting the Holy Land, and becoming a hermit. But
these pious notions soon vanished; and his passion for glory, and
a secret inclination for a rich lady in Castile, with a view to
marriage, again filled his mind with thoughts of the world; till
returning to the lives of the saints, he perceived in his own heart
the emptiness of all worldly glory, and that only God could content
the soul. This vicissitude and fluctuation of mind continued some
time; but he observed this difference, that the thoughts which were
from God filled his soul with consolation, peace, and tranquillity;
whereas the others brought indeed some sensible delight, but left a
certain bitterness and heaviness in the heart. This mark he lays down
in his book of Spiritual Exercises, as the ground of the rules for
the discernment of the Spirit of God and the world in all the motions
of the soul; as does cardinal Bona, and all other writers who treat
of the discernment of spirits in the interior life. Taking at last
a firm resolution to imitate the saints in their heroic practice of
virtue, he began to treat his body with all the rigor it was able to
bear; he rose at midnight, and spent his retired hours in weeping for
his sins.
One night being prostrate before an image of the Blessed Virgin, in
extraordinary sentiments of fervor, he consecrated himself to the
service of his Redeemer under her patronage, and vowed an inviolable
fidelity. When he had ended his prayer he heard a great noise; the
house shook, the windows of his chamber were broken, and a rent was
made in the wall which remains to this day, says the latest writer
of his life. God might by this sign testify his acceptance of his
sacrifice; as a like sign happened in the place where the faithful
were assembled after Christ’s ascension,[346] and in the prison of
Paul and Silas;[347] or this might be an effect of the rage of the
devil. Another night, Ignatius saw the Mother of God environed with
light, holding the infant Jesus in her arms; this vision replenished
his soul with spiritual delight, and made all sensual pleasure
and worldly objects insipid to him ever after. The saint’s eldest
brother, who was then, by the death of their father, lord of Loyola,
endeavored to detain him in the world, and to persuade him not to
throw away the great advantages of the honor and reputation which
his valor had gained him. But Ignatius being cured of his wounds,
under pretence of paying a visit to the duke of Najara, who had
often come to see him during his illness, and who lived at Navarret,
turned another way, and sending his two servants back from Navarret
to Loyola, went to Montserrat. This was a great abbey of near three
hundred Benedictin monks, of a reformed austere institute, situate on
a mountain of difficult access, about four leagues in circumference
and two leagues high, in the diocess of Barcelona. The monastery was
first founded for nuns by the sovereign counts of Barcelona about the
year 880, but was given to monks in 990. It has been much augmented
by several kings of Spain, and is very famous for a miraculous image
of the Blessed Virgin, and a great resort of pilgrims.
There lived at that time in this monastery a monk of great sanctity,
named John Chanones, a Frenchman, who being formerly vicar-general to
the bishop of Mirepoix, in the thirty-first year of his age, resigned
his ecclesiastical preferments, and took the monastic habit in this
place. He lived to the age of eighty-eight years, never eating any
flesh, watching great part of the night in prayer, dividing his
whole time between heavenly contemplation and the service of his
neighbor; and giving to all Spain an example of the most perfect
obedience, humility, charity, devotion, and all other virtues. To
this experienced director, Ignatius addressed himself, and after his
preparation, was three days in making to him a general confession,
which he often interrupted by the abundance of his tears. He made a
vow of perpetual chastity, and dedicated himself with great fervor to
the divine service. At his first coming to this place he had bought,
at the village of Montserrat, a long coat of coarse cloth, a girdle,
a pair of sandals, a wallet, and a pilgrim’s staff, intending,
after he had finished his devotions there, to make a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem. Disguised in this habit, he remained at the abbey. He
communicated to his director a plan of the austerities he proposed
to practise, and was confirmed by him in his good resolutions. He
received the blessed eucharist early in the morning on the feast
of the Annunciation of our Lady in 1522; and on the same day left
Montserrat for fear of being discovered, having given his horse to
the monastery, and hung up his sword on a pillar near the altar
in testimony of his renouncing the secular warfare, and entering
himself in that of Christ. He travelled with his staff in his hand,
a scrip by his side, bare-headed, and with one foot bare, the other
being covered because it was yet tender and swelled. He went away
infinitely pleased that he had cast off the livery of the world, and
put on that of Jesus Christ. He had bestowed his rich clothes on a
beggar at his coming out of Montserrat; but the poor man was thrown
into prison on suspicion of theft. Ignatius being sent after by the
magistrates, and brought back, told the truth to release him, but
would not discover his own name.
Three leagues from Montserrat is a large village called Manresa,
with a convent of Dominicans, and a hospital without the walls for
pilgrims and sick persons. Ignatius went to this hospital, and
rejoicing to see himself received in it unknown and among the poor,
began to fast on water and the bread (which he begged) the whole
week, except Sundays, when he ate a few boiled herbs, but sprinkled
over with ashes. He wore an iron girdle and a hair shirt; disciplined
himself thrice a day, slept little, and lay on the ground. He was
every day present at the whole divine office, spent seven hours on
his knees at prayer, and received the sacraments every Sunday. To add
humiliation to his bodily austerities, he affected a clownishness
in his behavior, and went begging about the streets with his face
covered with dirt, his hair rough, and his beard and nails grown
out to a frightful length. The children threw stones at him, and
followed him with scornful shouts in the streets. Ignatius suffered
these insults without saying one word, rejoicing secretly in his
heart to share in the reproaches of the cross. The more mortifying
the noisomeness of the hospital and the company of beggars were,
the more violence he offered to himself that he might bear them
cheerfully. The story of the fine suit of clothes given to the beggar
at Montserrat, and the patience and devotion of the holy man, made
him soon to be reverenced as some fervent penitent in disguise. To
shun this danger, he privately hid himself in a dark deep cave in a
solitary valley, called The Vale of Paradise, covered with briars,
half a mile from the town. Here he much increased his mortifications
till he was accidentally found half dead, and carried back to Manresa
and lodged in the hospital.
After enjoying peace of mind and heavenly consolations from the
time of his conversion, he was here visited with the most terrible
trial of fears and scruples. He found no comfort in prayer, no
relief in fasting, no remedy in disciplines, no consolation from
the sacraments, and his soul was overwhelmed with bitter sadness.
The Dominicans, out of compassion, took him out of the hospital
into their convent; but his melancholy only increased upon him. He
apprehended some sin in every step he took, and seemed often on the
very brink of despair; but he was in the hands of him whose trials
are favors. He most earnestly implored the divine assistance, and
took no sustenance for seven days, till his confessor obliged him
to eat. Soon after this, his tranquillity of mind was perfectly
restored, and his soul overflowed with spiritual joy. From this
experience he acquired a particular talent for curing scrupulous
consciences, and a singular light to discern them. His prayer was
accompanied with many heavenly raptures, and he received from God a
supernatural knowledge and sense of sublime divine mysteries: yet
he concealed all from the eyes of men, only disclosing himself to
his two confessors, the pious monk of Montserrat, and the Dominican
of Manresa; however, the people began to reverence him as a living
saint, which they particularly testified during a violent fever into
which his austerities cast him three times.
Too nice a worldly prudence may condemn the voluntary humiliations
which this saint sometimes made choice of; but the wisdom of God
is above that of the world; and the Holy Ghost sometimes inspires
certain heroic souls to seek perfectly to die to themselves by
certain practices which are extraordinary, and which would not be
advisable to others; and if affected or undertaken with obstinacy
and against advice, would be pernicious and criminal. Ignatius, by
perfect compunction, humility, self-denial, contempt of the world,
severe interior trials, and assiduous meditation, was prepared,
by the divine grace, to be raised to an extraordinary gift of
supernatural prayer. He afterward assured F. Lainez that he had
learned more of divine mysteries by prayer in one hour at Manresa,
than all the doctors of the schools could ever have taught him.
He was there favored with many raptures, and divine illustrations
concerning the Trinity, of which he afterward spoke with so much
light and unction, that the most learned admired him, and the
ignorant were instructed. In like manner, in various wonderful
ecstasies, he was enlightened concerning the beauty and order of the
creation, the excess of divine love which shines forth to man in
the sacrament of the altar, and many other mysteries. So imperfect
was his knowledge of his duties when he first renounced the world,
that hearing a certain Moresco or Mahometan speak injuriously of
the holy mother of God, when he set out from Loyola to Montserrat,
he deliberated whether, being an officer, he ought not to kill him,
though the divine protection preserved him from so criminal an
action. But at Manresa he made so good a progress in the school of
virtue, as to become qualified already to be a guide to others. He
stayed there almost a year, during which time he governed himself
by the advice of the holy monk of Montserrat, whom he visited every
week, and that of his Dominican director.
Spain, in that and the foregoing age, abounded with many learned and
experienced persons in that way, endowed with an eminent spirit,
and a perfect experimental knowledge of Christian piety; witness
the works of St. Peter of Alcantara, John of Avila, St. Teresa,
Bartholomew de Martyribus, Louis of Granada, and others. Our saint
had the happiness to fall into the hands of prudent and able guides,
and giving his heart to God without reserve, became himself in a
short time an accomplished master; and whereas he at first only
proposed to himself his own perfection, he afterward burned with
an ardent desire of contributing to the salvation of others; and
commiserating the blindness of sinners, and considering how much the
glory of God shines in the sanctification of souls purchased with
the blood of his Son, he said to himself, “It is not enough that I
serve the Lord; all hearts ought to love him, and all tongues ought
to praise him.” With this view, in order to be admitted more freely
to converse with persons in the world, he chose a dress which, being
more decent than the penitential garments which he at first wore,
might not be disagreeable to others; and he moderated his excessive
austerities.
He began then to exhort many to the love of virtue, and he there
wrote his Spiritual Exercises, which he afterward revised, and
published at Rome in 1548.[348] Though the saint was at that time
unacquainted with learning any further than barely to read and write,
yet this book is so full of excellent maxims and instructions in the
highest points of a spiritual life, that it is most clear that the
Holy Ghost supplied abundantly what was yet wanting in him of human
learning and study. The spirit which reigns in this book was that of
all the saints. Frequent religious retirement had been practised by
pious persons, in imitation of Christ and all the saints from the
beginning; likewise the use and method of holy meditation were always
known; but the excellent order of these meditations, prescribed by
Ignatius, was new: and, though the principal rules and maxims are
found in the lessons and lives of the ancient fathers of the desert,
they are here judiciously chosen, methodically digested, and clearly
explained. One of these is, that a person must not abridge the
time, or desist from meditating, on account of spiritual dryness;
another, that no one make any vow in sudden sentiments of fervor, but
wait some time, and first ask advice. St. Ignatius establishes in
this book the practice of a daily particular examination against a
person’s predominant passion, or on the best means and endeavors to
acquire some particular virtue, besides the daily general examination
of conscience. He lays down this excellent maxim;[349] “When God hath
appointed out a way, we must faithfully follow it, and never think of
another, under pretence that it is more easy and safe. It is one of
the devil’s artifices to set before a soul some state, holy indeed,
but impossible to her, or at least different from hers; that by this
love of novelty, she may dislike or be slack in her present state, in
which God hath placed her, and which is best for her. In like manner
he represents to her other actions as more holy and profitable to
make her conceive a disgust of her present employment.” When some
pretended to find fault with this book of St. Ignatius’s Spiritual
Exercises, pope Paul III. at the request of St. Francis Borgia, by a
brief in 1548, approved it, as full of the Spirit of God, and very
useful for the edification and spiritual profit of the faithful.
The pestilence which raged in Italy having ceased, Ignatius, after
a stay of ten months at Manresa, left that place for Barcelona,
neither regarding the tears of those who sought to detain him, nor
admitting any to bear him company, nor consenting to accept any money
for the expenses of his journey. He took shipping at Barcelona, and
in five days landed at Gaeta, whence he travelled on foot to Rome,
Padua, and Venice, through villages, the towns being shut for fear
of the plague. He spent the Easter at Rome, and sailed from Venice
on board the admiral’s vessel, which was carrying the governor to
Cyprus. The sailors were a profligate crew, and seemed entirely to
neglect prayer and all duties of religion, and their discourse was
often lewd and profane. Ignatius having reproved them for their
licentiousness, his zeal made them conspire to leave him ashore in
a desert island; but a gust of wind from the land hindered the ship
from touching upon it. He arrived at Cyprus, and found in the port a
vessel full of pilgrims, just ready to hoist sail. Going immediately
on board, he made a good voyage, and landed at Jaffa, the ancient
Joppa, on the last day of August, 1523, forty days after he had left
Venice. He went on foot from thence to Jerusalem in four days. The
sight of the holy places filled his soul with joy and the most ardent
sentiments of devotion and compunction, and he desired to stay there
to labor in the conversion of the Mahometans. The provincial of the
Franciscans, by virtue of his authority from the holy see over the
pilgrims, commanded him to leave Palestine. Ignatius obeyed, but
slipt privately back to satisfy his devotion again in visiting twice
more the print of our Saviour’s feet on mount Olivet.
He returned to Europe in winter, in extreme cold weather, poorly
clad, and came to Venice at the end of January, in 1524; from whence
he continued his journey by Genoa to Barcelona. Desiring to qualify
himself for the functions of the altar, and for assisting spiritually
his neighbor, he began at Barcelona to study grammar, and addressed
himself to a famous master named Jerom Ardebal, being assisted in
the meantime in his maintenance by the charities of a pious lady of
that city, called Isabel Rosella. He was then thirty-three years
old; and it is not hard to conceive what difficulties he must go
through in learning the rudiments of grammar at that age. Moreover,
he seemed, by his military employments, and after his retreat by his
contemplative life, very unfit for such an undertaking. At first, his
mind was so fixed only on God, that he forgot everything he read,
and conjugating _amo_, for example, could only repeat to himself,
“I love God; I am loved by God,” and the like; but resisting this
as a temptation, he began to make some progress, still joining
contemplation and extraordinary austerities with his studies. He bore
the jeers and taunts of the little boys, his schoolfellows, with joy.
Hearing that a poor man called Lasano had hanged himself on a beam
in his chamber, he ran to him, cut the rope, and prayed by him till
the man returned to himself, though he had before seemed perfectly
dead to all the bystanders. Lasano made his confession, received the
sacraments, and soon after expired. This fact was regarded in the
city as miraculous.
Some persons persuaded Ignatius to read Erasmus’s Christian Soldier,
an elegant book written by that master of style, at the request of
an officer’s pious lady, for the use of her husband, a man of loose
morals. The saint always found his heart dry after reading this or
any other of that author’s works; which made him afterward caution
those of his society against reading them, at least very much. Though
in that writer’s paraphrase on the Lord’s prayer and other such
treatises of piety, we find very pious sentiments collected from
great authors, and elegantly and concisely expressed, yet a devout
reader finds the language of the heart wanting. On the other side, it
is well known how much St. Ignatius read daily, and recommended to
all others the incomparable book, Of the Imitation of Christ, which
he made frequent use of to nourish and increase the fervor of his
soul. He lodged at the house of one Agnes Pascal, a devout woman. Her
son, John Pascal, a pious youth, would sometimes rise in the night
to observe what Ignatius did in his chamber, and saw him sometimes
on his knees, sometimes prostrate on the ground, his countenance on
fire, and often in tears, repeating such words as these: “O God, my
love, and the delight of my soul, if men knew thee they could never
offend thee! My God, how good art thou to bear with such a sinner as
I am!”
The saint, after studying two years at Barcelona, went to the
university of Alcala, which had been lately founded by cardinal
Ximenes, where he attended at the same time to lectures in logic,
physics, and divinity; by which multiplicity he only confounded
his ideas, and learned nothing at all, though he studied night
and day. He lodged in a chamber of an hospital, lived by begging
a small subsistence, and wore a coarse grey habit, in which he
was imitated by four companions. He catechised children, held
assemblies of devotion in the hospital, and by his mild reprehensions
converted many loose livers, and, among others, one of the richest
prelates in Spain. Some accused him of sorcery, and of the heresy
of certain visionaries lately condemned in Spain under the name of
the Illuminati, or Men of New Light: but, upon examination, he was
justified by the inquisitors. After this, for teaching the catechism,
being a man without learning or authority, he was accused to the
bishop’s grand vicar, who confined him to close prison two-and-forty
days, but declared him innocent of any fault by a public sentence on
the 1st day of June, 1527; yet forbidding him and his companions to
wear any singular habit, or to give any instructions in religious
matters, being illiterate persons. Ignatius rejoiced in his jail that
he suffered, though innocent, but spoke with such piety that many
called him another St. Paul in prison. Being enlarged, he went about
the streets with a public officer to beg money to buy a scholar’s
dress, in which action he rejoiced at the insults and affronts
which he met with. However, he went himself to the archbishop of
Toledo, Alphonsus de Fonseca, who was much pleased with him, but
advised him to leave Alcala, and go to Salamanca, promising him his
protection. Ignatius, in this latter place, began to draw many to
virtue, and was followed by great numbers, which exposed him again to
suspicions of introducing dangerous practices, and the grand-vicar of
Salamanca imprisoned him; but, after two-and-twenty days, declared
him innocent, and a person of sincere virtue. Ignatius looked upon
prisons, sufferings, and ignominy, as the height of his ambition;
and God was pleased to purge and sanctify his soul by these trials.
Recovering his liberty again, he resolved to leave Spain.
He from that time began to wear shoes, and received money sent him by
his friends, but in the middle of winter travelled on foot to Paris,
where he arrived in the beginning of February, 1528. He spent two
years in perfecting himself in the Latin tongue; then went through
a course of philosophy. He lived first in Montaigue college; but,
being robbed of his money, was obliged to lodge in the hospital of
St. James, to beg his bread from day to day, and in the vacation time
to go into Flanders, and once into England, to procure charities from
the Spanish merchants settled there, from whom and from some friends
at Barcelona he received abundant supplies. He studied his philosophy
three years and a half in the college of St. Barbara. He had induced
many of his schoolfellows to spend the Sundays and holydays in
prayer, and to apply themselves more fervently to the practice of
good works. Pegna, his master, thought he hindered their studies, and
finding him not corrected by his admonitions, prepossessed Govea,
principal of the college of St. Barbara, against him, so that he was
ordered by him to undergo the greatest punishment then in use in that
university, called _The Hall_, which was a public whipping; that this
infamy might deter others from following him. The regents came all
into the hall with rods in their hands, ready to lash the seditious
student. Ignatius offered himself joyfully to suffer all things;
yet, apprehending lest the scandal of this disgrace should make
those whom he had reclaimed fall back, when they saw him condemned
as a corrupter of youth, went to the principal in his chamber, and
modestly laid open to him the sentiments of his soul, and the reasons
of his conduct; and offered himself as much as concerned his own
person, that any sacrifice should be made of his body and fame,
but begged of him to consider the scandal some might receive, who
were yet young and tender in virtue. Govea made him no answer, but
taking him by the hand led him into the hall, where, at the ringing
of the bell, the whole college stood ready assembled. When all saw
the principal enter, and expected the sign for the punishment, he
threw himself at the feet of Ignatius, begging his pardon for having
too lightly believed such false reports; then rising, he publicly
declared that Ignatius was a living saint, and had no other aim or
desire than the salvation of souls, and was ready to suffer joyfully
any infamous punishment. Such a reparation of honor gave the saint
the highest reputation, and even the ancient and experienced doctors
asked his advice in spiritual matters. Pegna himself was ever after
his great admirer and friend, and appointed another scholar, who was
more advanced in his studies, and a young man of great virtue and
quick parts, to assist him in his exercises. This was Peter Faber,
a Savoyard, a native of the diocess of Geneva, by whose help he
finished his philosophy, and took the degree of master of arts with
great applause, after a course of three years and a half, according
to the custom of the times. After this, Ignatius began his divinity
at the Dominicans.
Peter Faber had from his childhood made a vow of chastity, which
he had always most faithfully kept, yet was troubled with violent
temptations, from which the most rigorous fasts did not deliver him.
He was also tempted to vain-glory, and labored under great anxiety
and scruples about these temptations, which he at length disclosed
to Ignatius his holy pupil, whose skilful and heavenly advice was
a healing balsam to his soul. The saint at last prescribed him a
course of his spiritual exercises, and taught him the practices
of meditation, of the particular examination, and other means of
perfection, conducting him through all the paths of an interior life.
St. Francis Xavier, a young master of philosophy, full of the vanity
of the schools, was his next conquest. St. Ignatius made him sensible
that all mortal glory is emptiness; only that which is eternal
deserving our regard. He converted many abandoned sinners. When a
young man, engaged in a criminal commerce with a woman of the city,
was proof against his exhortations, Ignatius stood in a frozen pond
by the way side up to the neck, and as he passed by in the night,
cried out to him, “Whither are you going? Do not you hear the thunder
of divine justice over your head, ready to break upon you? Go then;
satisfy your brutish passion; here I will suffer for you, to appease
heaven.” The lewd young man, at first affrighted, then confounded,
returned back, and changed his life. By the like pious stratagems the
saint recovered many other souls from the abysses into which they
were fallen. He often served the sick in the hospitals; and one day
finding a repugnance to touch the ulcers of one sick of a contagious
distemper, to overcome himself he not only dressed his sores, but put
his hand from them to his mouth, saying, “Since thou art afraid for
one part, thy whole body shall take its share.” From that time he
felt no natural repugnance in such actions.
James Laynez, of Almazan, twenty-one years of age; Alphonsus
Salmeron, only eighteen; and Nicholas Alphonso, surnamed Bobadilla,
from the place of his birth, near Valencia, all Spaniards of great
parts, at that time students in divinity at Paris, associated
themselves to the saint in his pious exercises. Simon Rodriguez,
a Portuguese, joined them. These fervent students, moved by the
pressing instances and exhortations of Ignatius, made all together a
vow to renounce the world, to go to preach the gospel in Palestine,
or if they could not go thither within a year after they had finished
their studies, to offer themselves to his holiness to be employed in
the service of God in what manner he should judge best. They fixed
for the end of all their studies the 25th day of January in 1537,
and pronounced this vow aloud, in the holy subterraneous chapel at
Montmartre, after they had all received the holy communion from
Peter Faber, who had been lately ordained priest. This was done on
the feast of the Assumption of our Lady, in 1534. Ignatius continued
frequent conferences, and joint exercises, to animate his companions
in their good purposes; but soon after was ordered by the physicians
to try his native air, for the cure of a lingering indisposition. He
left Paris in the beginning of the year 1535, and was most honorably
and joyfully received in Guipuscoa by his eldest brother Garcias,
and his nephews, and by all the clergy in processions. He refused to
go to the castle of Loyola, taking up his quarters in the hospital
of Azpetia. The sight of the places where he had led a worldly
life excited in him the deepest sentiments of compunction, and he
chastised his body with a rough hair shirt, iron chains, disciplines,
watching and prayer. He recovered his health in a short time, and
catechised and instructed the poor with incredible fruit. Ignatius,
in his childhood, had with some companions robbed an orchard, for
which another man had been condemned to pay the damages. In the
first discourse he made he accused himself publicly of this fact,
and calling the poor man, who was present, declared that he had been
falsely accused, and for reparation gave him two farms which belonged
to him, begging his pardon before all the people, adding that this
was one of the reasons of his journey thither.
In the meantime, three others, all doctors in divinity, by the
exhortations of Faber, joined the saint’s companions in Paris.
Claudius le Jay, a Savoyard, John Codure, a native of Dauphiné, and
Pasquier Brouet, of Picardy; so that with Ignatius they were now ten
in number. The holy founder, after a tedious and dangerous journey
both by sea and land, arrived at Venice about the end of the year
1536, and his nine companions from Paris met him there on the 8th of
January, 1537; they employed themselves in the hospitals, but all
except Ignatius went to Rome, where pope Paul III. received them
graciously, and granted them an indult, that those who were not
priests might receive holy orders from what bishop they pleased. They
were accordingly ordained at Venice by the bishop of Arbe. Ignatius
was one of this number. After their ordination they retired into a
cottage near Vicenza, to prepare themselves in solitude by fasting
and prayer for the holy ministry of the altar. The rest said their
first masses in September and October, but Ignatius deferred his from
month to month till Christmas day, overflowing in his retirement with
heavenly consolations, and in danger of losing his sight through the
abundance of his tears. Thus he employed a whole year in preparing
himself to offer that adorable sacrifice. After this they dispersed
themselves into several places about Verona and Vicenza, preaching
penance to the people, and living on a little bread which they
begged. The emperor and the Venetians having declared war against the
Turks, their pilgrimage into Palestine was rendered impracticable.
The year therefore being elapsed, Ignatius, Faber, and Laynez
went to Rome, threw themselves at his Holiness’s feet and offered
themselves to whatever work he should judge best to employ them in.
St. Ignatius told his companions at Vicenza, that if any one asked
what their institute was, they might answer, “the Society of Jesus;”
because they were united to fight against heresies and vice under
the standard of Christ. In his road from Vicenza to Rome, praying in
a little chapel between Sienna and Rome, he, in an ecstasy, seemed
to see the eternal Father, who affectionately commended him to his
Son. Jesus Christ appeared at the same time also shining with an
unspeakable light, but loaded with a heavy cross, and sweetly said
to Ignatius,--“I will be favorable to you at Rome.”[350] This St.
Ignatius disclosed to F. Laynez, in a transport when he came out of
the chapel; and F. Laynez, when he was general, related it to all the
fathers in Rome in a domestic conference, at which F. Ribadeneira,
who records it, was present. The same was attested by others to
whom the saint had discovered this signal favor. Pope Paul III.
accordingly received them graciously; and appointed Faber, called
in French Le Fevre, to teach in the Sapienza at Rome scholastic
divinity, and Laynez to explain the holy scripture; whilst Ignatius
labored, by means of his spiritual exercises and instructions, to
reform the manners of the people.
The holy founder, with a view to perpetuate the work of God,
called to Rome all his companions, and proposed to them his design
and motives of forming themselves into a religious Order. After
recommending the matter to God by fasting and prayer, all agreed in
the proposal, and resolved, first, besides the vows of poverty and
chastity already made by them, to add a third of perpetual obedience,
the more perfectly to conform themselves to the Son of God who was
obedient even to death; and to establish a general whom all, by
their vow, should be bound to obey, who should be perpetual, and his
authority absolute, subject entirely to the pope, but not liable
to be restrained by chapters. He likewise determined to prescribe
a fourth vow of going wherever the pope should send them for the
salvation of souls, and even without money, if it should so please
him; also that the professed Jesuits should possess no real estates
or revenues, either in particular, or in common; but that colleges
might enjoy revenues and rents for the maintenance of students of
the Order. In the meanwhile Govea, principal of the college of St.
Barbara at Paris, had recommended the Jesuits to the king of Portugal
as proper missionaries for the conversion of the Indies, and that
prince asked of Ignatius six laborers for that purpose. The founder
having only ten, could send him no more than two, Simon Rodriguez,
who remained in Portugal, and Xavier, afterward the apostle of the
Indies. The three cardinals appointed by the pope to examine the
affair of this new Order, at first opposed it, thinking religious
Orders already too much multiplied, but changed their opinions on
a sudden, and pope Paul III. approved it under the title of “The
Society of Jesus,” by a bull, dated the 27th of September, 1540.
Ignatius was chosen the first general, but only acquiesced in
obedience to his confessor. He entered upon his office on Easter-day,
1541, and the members all made their religious vows, according to the
bull of their institution.
Ignatius then set himself to write constitutions or rules for his
Society, in which he lays down its end to be, in the first place,
the sanctification of their own souls by joining together the active
and the contemplative life; for nothing so much qualifies a minister
of God to save others as the sanctification of his own soul in the
first place; secondly, to labor for the salvation and perfection of
their neighbor, and this, first, by catechising the ignorant (which
work is the basis and ground of religion and virtue, and though
mean and humble, is the most necessary and indispensable duty of
every pastor), secondly, by the instruction of youth[351] in piety
and learning (upon which the reformation of the world principally
depends); and thirdly, by the direction of consciences, missions, and
the like.[352]
St. Ignatius would have the office of general to be perpetual or
for life, being persuaded this would better command the respect of
inferiors, and more easily enable him to undertake and carry on
great enterprises for the glory of God, which require a considerable
time to have them well executed. Nevertheless, he often strenuously
endeavored to resign that dignity, but was never able to compass
it; and at length the pope forbade him any more to attempt it. He
had no sooner taken that charge upon him than he went into the
kitchen, and served as a scullion under the cook, and he continued
for forty-six days to catechise poor children in the church of the
Society. By preaching he gained such an ascendant over the hearts of
the people as produced many wonderful conversions. Among the pious
establishments which he made at Rome, he founded a house for the
reception of Jews who should be converted, during the time of their
instruction, and another for the reception and maintenance of lewd
women who should be desirous to enter upon virtuous courses, yet were
not called to a religious state among the Magdalens or penitents.
When one told him that the conversion of such sinners is seldom
sincere, he answered: “To prevent only one sin would be a great
happiness, though it cost me ever so great pains.” He procured two
houses to be erected at Rome for the relief of poor orphans of both
sexes, and another for the maintenance of young women whose poverty
might expose their virtue to danger. The heart of this blessed man so
burned with charity, that he was continually thinking and speaking
of what might most contribute to promote the divine honor and the
sanctification of souls; and he did wonders by the zealous fathers
of his Society in all parts of the globe. He was entreated by many
princes and cities of Italy, Spain, Germany, and the Low-Countries
to afford them some of his laborers. Under the auspicious protection
of John III. king of Portugal, he sent St. Francis Xavier into the
East-Indies, where he gained a new world to the faith of Christ. He
sent John Nugnez and Lewis Gonzales into the kingdoms of Fez and
Morocco to instruct and assist the Christian slaves; in 1547, four
others to Congo in Africa; in 1555, thirteen into Abyssinia, among
whom John Nugnez was nominated by pope Julius III. patriarch of
Ethiopia, and two others, bishops; lastly, others into the Portuguese
settlements in South America.
Pope Paul III. commissioned the fathers James Laynez and Alphonsus
Salmeron to assist, in quality of his theologians, at the council
of Trent. Before their departure, St. Ignatius, among other
instructions, gave them a charge in all disputations to be careful
above all things, to preserve modesty and humility, and to shun
all confidence, contentiousness, or empty display of learning.
F. Claudius Le Jay appeared in the same council as theologian of
cardinal Otho, bishop of Ausberg. Many of the first disciples of
St. Ignatius distinguished themselves in divers kingdoms of Europe,
but none with greater reputation, both for learning and piety, than
Peter Canisius, who was a native of Nimeguen, in the Low Countries,
and having with wonderful success employed his zealous labors at
Ingolstadt and in several other parts of Germany, and in Bohemia,
died in the odor of sanctity, at Fribourg, in 1597, seventy-seven
years old.[353] Whilst F. Claudius Le Jay was at Trent, Ferdinand,
king of the Romans, nominated him bishop of Trieste. The good father
seemed ready to die of grief at this news, and wrote to St. Ignatius,
humbly requesting him to put some bar to this promotion. The holy
founder was himself alarmed, and by a pressing letter to the king,
prevailed upon him not to do what would be an irreparable prejudice
to his young Society. He urged to the pope and sacred college many
reasons why he desired that all the fathers of his Society should be
excluded from all ecclesiastical dignities, alleging that this would
be a means more easily to preserve among them a spirit of humility
and poverty, which is the very soul and perfection of their state;
and that, being missionaries, it was more advantageous to the Church
that they should remain such, always ready to fly from pole to pole,
as the public necessities should require. The pope being satisfied
with his reasons, the saint obliged all professed Jesuits to bind
themselves by a simple vow never to seek prelatures, and to refuse
them when offered, unless compelled by a precept of the pope to
accept them.
In 1546 the Jesuits first opened their schools in Europe, in the
college which St. Francis Borgia had erected for them at Gandia, with
the privileges of an university.[354] The seminary of Goa in Asia,
which had been erected some years before for the Indian missions,
was committed to the Jesuits, under the direction of St. Francis
Xavier, the preceding year. King John also founded for them, in 1546,
a noble college at Coïmbra, the second which they had in Europe.
F. Simon Rodriguez directed this establishment, and many others
in Portugal, Spain, and Brazil, and died at Lisbon in the highest
reputation for sanctity and learning in 1579. Among the rules which
St. Ignatius gave to the masters, he principally inculcated the
lessons of humility, modesty, and devotion; he prescribed that all
their scholars should hear mass every day, go to confession every
month, and always begin their studies by prayer; that their masters
should take every fit occasion to inspire them with the love of
heavenly things; and that by daily meditation, self-examinations,
pious reading, retreat, and the constant exercise of the divine
presence, they should nourish in their own souls a fervent spirit of
prayer, which without the utmost care is extinguished by a dry course
of studies and school disputations; and with it is destroyed the very
soul of a religious or spiritual life. He recommended nothing more
earnestly, both to professors and scholars, than that they should
dedicate all their labors, with the greatest fervor, to the greater
glory of God, which intention will make studies equal to prayer. He
treated very harshly all those whom learning rendered self-conceited
or less devout; and removed all those masters who discovered any
fondness for singular opinions. It is incredible with what attention
and industry he promoted emulation and every means that could be a
spur to scholars. He required that copies of some of the principal
literary performances should be sent from all the colleges to Rome,
where he had them examined before him, that he might better judge of
the progress both of masters and scholars.
He encouraged every branch of the sciences, and would have the
fathers in his Society applied to those functions, whether in
teaching, preaching, or the missions, for which God seemed chiefly
to qualify and destine them by their genius, talents, and particular
graces; yet so that no one should neglect the duties either of
assiduous prayer and an interior life, or of instructing and
catechising others. He recommended to them all, especially to the
masters of novices, &c., to read diligently the conferences, lives,
and writings of the fathers of the desert, and other pious ascetics,
in order to learn their spirit. With what success many among them did
this, appears from the Practice of Christian Perfection, compiled
by F. Alphonsus Rodrigues, one of the most eminent persons whom
our saint had admitted into his Society. In this excellent work he
gathered and digested, in a clear and easy method, the most admirable
maxims and lessons of the ancient monks; and having many years
trained up, according to them, the novices of his Order in Spain,
died holily in the year 1616, the ninetieth of his age.[355] We
have other eminent instances of this holy spirit and science among
the primitive disciples of St. Ignatius, in the works of F. Lewis
de Ponte or Puente, who died in 1624, and whose canonization has
been often desired by the kings of Spain; in those of F. Alvarez de
Paz, who died in Peru in 1620; and in the writings and life of F.
Baltassar Alvarez, who died in Spain in 1580, in the odor of sanctity.
St. Francis Borgia, in 1551, gave a considerable sum towards building
the Roman college for the Jesuits. Pope Julius III. contributed
largely to it; Paul IV., in 1555, founded it for perpetuity with
great munificence; afterward Gregory XIII. much augmented its
buildings and revenues. St. Ignatius, intending to make this the
model of all his other colleges, neglected nothing to render it
complete, and took care that it should be supplied with the ablest
masters in all the sciences, and with all possible helps for the
advancement of literature. He made it a strict rule in the Society,
that every one should study to speak correctly the language of the
country where he lives;[356] for, without being perfect in the
vulgar tongue, no one can be qualified to preach or perform many
other functions with profit. On this account he established in the
Roman college daily lessons in the Italian tongue, and he carefully
studied that language, and appointed others to put him in mind of
all the faults which he should commit in speaking. St. Ignatius also
directed the foundation of the German college in Rome made by Julius
III. but afterwards finished by Gregory XIII. He often met with
violent persecutions, but overcame them by meekness and patience.
When the French king Henry II. gave the Society letters patent to
settle in France, the parliament of Paris made the most outrageous
remonstrances, and the faculty of Sorbon, though not without
opposition, passed a virulent decree against it. The other fathers at
Rome thought it necessary to answer these censures; but St. Ignatius
would have nothing printed or written in their defence, saying, that
it was better to commit their cause to God, and that the slanders
raised against them would fall of themselves; and so it happened.
Indeed the storm was too violent to last. Upon other occasions the
saint modestly defended his institute against slanderers.
The prudence and charity of the saint in his conduct towards his
religious, won him all their hearts. His commands seemed rather
entreaties. The address with which he accommodated himself to every
one’s particular genius, and the mildness with which he tempered his
reproofs, gave to his reprehensions a sweetness which gained the
affections whilst it corrected a fault. Thus chiding one for his
too little guard over his eyes, he said to him, with tenderness: “I
have often admired the modesty of your deportment, yet observe that
unguarded glances often escape you.” When another had fixed his eye
steadfastly upon him a long time, the saint enjoined him to make the
government of his eye the subject of his particular examination, and
to say every day a short prayer for fifteen months. He extremely
recommended a strict modesty in the whole exterior as the index of
the interior, and a means absolutely necessary for the regulating of
it, and the government of the senses and passions. He always showed
the affection of the most tender parent towards all his brethren,
especially towards the sick, for whom he was solicitous to procure
every spiritual and even temporal succor and comfort, which it was
his great delight to give them himself. The most perfect obedience
and self-denial were the two first lessons which he inculcated to
his novices, whom he told at the door as they entered, that they
must leave behind them all self-will and private judgment. In his
famous letter to the Portuguese Jesuits, On the Virtue of Obedience,
he says, this alone bringeth forth and nourisheth all other virtues;
and calls it the peculiar virtue, and distinguishing mark and
characteristic of his Society, in which, if any member suffer himself
to be outdone by those of other Orders in fasting or watching, that
he must yield to none in obedience. He adds, true obedience must
reach the understanding as well as the will, and never suffer a
person even secretly to complain of, or censure the precept of a
superior, whom he must always consider as vested with the authority
of Jesus Christ over him. He says, it is not a less fault to break
the laws of obedience in watching than in sleeping, in laboring than
in doing nothing.
When F. Araos, whose spiritual labors were very successful in the
court of Spain, seemed to seek the conversation of the great ones
of the world, upon pretence of conciliating their favor to his
ministry, St. Ignatius sent him a sharp reprimand, telling him that
the necessary authority for the ministers of the word of God, is to
be gained only by a spirit of recollection, and the exercises of
Christian humility; for the loss of everything is to be feared in an
intercourse with the great ones of the world. He used to say, that
prosperity caused in him more fear than joy, that when persecution
ceased he should be in apprehension lest the Society should somewhat
relax in the observance of its regular discipline; that good fortune
is never to be trusted, and that we have most to fear when things
go according to our desires. He made a most severe regulation, that
in the Society no one should ever visit women, even of the highest
quality, alone; and that when they discoursed with them, or heard
their confessions, this should be so ordered, that the companion
might see all that passed, without hearing what ought to be secret,
this being a means to prevent the possibility of evil suspicions or
slanders. In the assigning the employments of those under his charge,
he had usually a regard to their inclinations, though he always
required that, on their parts, they should be wholly indifferent and
disposed cheerfully to accept and discharge any.
Notwithstanding the fatigue and constant application which the
establishment of his Order in all parts of the world, and so many
other great enterprises undertaken to promote the glory of God,
required, he was all on fire with an excess of charity, and a
restless desire of gaining souls to God, and wearied himself out in
the service of his neighbor, always laboring to extirpate vice, and
to promote virtue in all, and set on foot several practices which
might conduce to the divine service and the salvation of men. It is
not to be believed how many and how great affairs this blessed man
was able to go through, and with what courage and spirit he bore so
continual a burden, and this with so weak health and infirm body. But
he was assisted by the powerful hand of our Lord, that furnished him
with strength for all his labors; so that he then appeared strongest
and most courageous, when he was weary, sickly, and unprovided of
human and natural helps; for, in his infirmity, the power of God
manifested itself, and the saint seemed to support the weakness
of his body with the vigor of his soul. This interior strength he
chiefly maintained by an eminent spirit of prayer, and the constant
and closest union of his soul with God. For he was favored with an
extraordinary grace of devotion, which he, out of humility, thought
God had given him out of compassion for his weakness and misery,
which he said was greater than that of any other. In saying the holy
mass, and reciting the divine office, the abundance of heavenly
delights which God poured into his soul, was often so great, and
made such showers of tears stream from his eyes, that he was obliged
to stop in a manner at every word, sometimes to make a considerable
interruption whilst he gave vent to his tears. It was once feared,
lest his continual effusion of tears should hurt his eye-sight.
At other times, though his eyes were dry at his devotion, and the
sluices of his tears were shut up, yet their influence and effect was
not wanting; for his spirit was still watered with heavenly dew, and
the divine illustrations ceased not to flow copiously into his soul.
In matters of concern, though reasons were ever so convincing and
evident, he never took any resolution before he had consulted God
by prayer. He let not an hour pass in the day without recollecting
himself interiorly, and examining his conscience, for this purpose
banishing for a while all other thoughts. He never applied his mind
so much to exterior affairs as to lose the sweet relish of interior
devotion. He had God always and in all things present to his mind.
Every object served him for a book, wherein he read the divine
perfections, and by that means raised his heart to his Creator.
He recommended this manner of prayer to every one, especially to
those who are employed in spiritual functions for the help of their
neighbor. Before he betook himself to public or private prayer, he
prepared his soul with great fervor, and entering into the oratory
of his heart, enkindled his affections, so that this appeared in
his countenance, and he seemed to be all on fire, as we ourselves
frequently observed, says Ribadeneira. The saint being once asked by
F. Lainez what manner of prayer he used, gave this answer, that in
matters concerning Almighty God he behaved himself rather passively
than actively. He prayed sometimes standing, and profoundly adored
the majesty of God present to his soul; he often bowed his body low,
and most frequently prayed on his knees. No sooner had he recollected
his mind in God, but his countenance put on an air which appeared
altogether heavenly, and often streams of tears fell sweetly from his
eyes.
He prescribed to the priests of his Order to be about half an
hour at the altar in saying mass, to avoid on one side the least
appearance of indecent hurry and precipitation in that tremendous
sacrifice; and, on the other, not to be tedious to the people by
unseasonably indulging their private devotion. Nevertheless, he was
himself about an hour in saying mass, to excuse which he alleged the
plea of necessity, being often obliged to make pauses through an
irresistible tenderness of devotion. After mass he spent two hours
in private prayer, during which time no one was admitted to speak to
him except on some pressing necessity. F. Louis Gonzales, who for
some time governed the college under him, says, “As often as I went
to him at that time, which necessity frequently obliged me to do,
I always saw his face shining with an air so bright and heavenly,
that, quite forgetting myself, I stood astonished in contemplating
him. Nor was his countenance like that of many devout men in whom I
have admired a wonderful serenity at their prayers, but it breathed
something quite unusual, and, as it were, divine.” On other occasions
the like was remarked in him; on which account F. Lainez compared
him to Moses when he came from conversing with God. Nicholas Lanoy
testified, that he one day saw a fire flame on his head whilst he was
saying mass. Saint Philip Neri, who often visited St. Ignatius, used
to assure his friends that he had seen his face shining with bright
rays of light. As F. Antony Galloni, his disciple and confidant in
all his concerns, and Marcellus Vitelleschi declared they had often
heard from his own mouth; of which cardinal Taurusius, archbishop
of Sienna, published an authentic certificate.[357] John Petronius,
a famous physician in Rome, declared publicly that, when sick, he
once saw his own chamber, which was then very dark, by reason of
the windows being shut, filled with a dazzling light from such rays
upon the blessed man’s coming into it. Isabel Rosella, John Pascal,
and several other persons testified, that they had sometimes beheld
his countenance at prayer sparkling with radiant beams of light, the
abundant consolations which replenished his soul redounding on his
body. John Pascal added, that he had seen him in prayer raised more
than a foot above the ground, and heard him say at the same time,
“O my God! O my Lord! O that men knew thee!” The saint was often
favored, amid the tears and fervor of his devotion, with wonderful
raptures, visions, and revelations; and some of these visions and
other supernatural favors St. Ignatius mentioned himself in short
notes which he wrote, and which were found in his own hand after his
death, some of which notes are published by F. Bartoli.[358] Others
are mentioned by Ribadeneira, who inserted in the saint’s life, as he
declares, only what himself had seen, or had heard from his mouth, or
from persons of unquestionable authority, and whose life of his holy
founder, by the order of Saint Francis Borgia, was carefully examined
and approved by the principal persons then living who had frequently
conversed with the saint, as Salmeron, Bobadilla, Polancus, who had
been the saint’s secretary, Natalis, &c.
If the spirit of prayer was that virtue by which our saint was
admitted to the familiar intercourse with God, was the key which
unlocked to him the treasure of all other virtues and graces, and
was the continual comfort, support, and light of his soul, and
the constant advancement of its supernatural life in his mortal
pilgrimage, this spirit was itself founded in the most perfect
self-denial. The Holy Ghost never communicates himself, by the
infusion of this grace, but to a heart that is entirely dead to
itself and its passions, and crucified to the world. This St.
Ignatius understood so well, that hearing another once say, that
a certain person was endowed with a great gift of contemplation,
and was eminently a man of prayer, he corrected the expression,
saying, “call him rather a man of the most perfect self-denial;”
because the spirit of grace and prayer requires a perfect purity and
disengagement from all inordinate affections, and a heart empty of
itself. This victory over himself the saint obtained by an habitual
practice of the exterior mortification of his senses; and by that
perfect patience, resignation, and confidence in God, and constancy
with which he bore the most severe interior and exterior trials.
To complete the most essential interior mortification of his will
and passions, he added the practice of an unlimited obedience to
his directors and superiors, and of the most profound and sincere
humility. Even when broken with age and infirmities, he said, that
should his Holiness command it, he would with joy go on board the
first ship he could find; and if he were so ordered, though it had
neither sails nor rudder, and without any warning, would immediately
set out for any part of the globe. It was his perpetual lesson to his
novices,--“Sacrifice your will and judgment by obedience. Whatever
you do without the consent of your spiritual guide will be imputed to
wilfulness, not to virtue, though you were to exhaust your bodies by
labors or austerities.”
Humility is the sister virtue of obedience, the foundation of a
spiritual life, and the distinguishing mark or characteristic of all
the saints. This virtue St. Ignatius embraced with the utmost ardor,
from his first entering upon a spiritual course of life. He went a
long time in old tattered rags, and lived in hospitals, despised,
affronted, and persecuted; this he desired, and in it he found his
great joy and satisfaction. He ever retained this affection for
humiliations, out of a sincere contempt of himself; for acknowledging
himself a sinner, he was thoroughly persuaded that contempt and
injuries from all creatures, as instruments of the divine justice,
were his due, and that he was most unworthy of all comforts, favor,
or regard. Nothing but charity and zeal to procure his neighbor’s
good restrained him from doing ridiculous things on purpose to be
laughed at by all; and he always practised such humiliations as
were consistent with prudence and his other duties. All his actions
and whatever belonged to him, breathed an air of sincere humility.
His apparel was poor, though clean; his bed was very mean, and his
diet coarse, and so temperate, that it was a perpetual abstinence.
He employed himself often most cheerfully in the meanest offices
about the house, as in making beds, and in cleansing the chambers
of the sick. It was his great study to conceal his virtues, and
nothing was more admirable in his life than the address with which he
covered his most heroic actions under the veil of humility. Though
he was superior, he frequently submitted to inferiors with wonderful
meekness and humility, when he could do it without prejudice to
his authority. In things of which he was not certain, he readily
acquiesced in the judgment of others; and was a great enemy to
all positiveness, and to the use of superlatives in discourse. He
received rebukes from any one with cheerfulness and thanks. If in
his presence anything was said that redounded to his praise, he
showed an extreme confusion, which was usually accompanied with many
tears. He was seldom heard to speak of himself, and never but on
very pressing occasions. Though visions, revelations, and the like
favors were frequently vouchsafed him, he scarce ever mentioned such
things; but all his discourse was of humility, charity, patience,
divine zeal, prayer, mortification, and other such virtues, of which
we are to make the greatest account, and by which alone men become
saints and friends of God. Ribadeneira heard him say, that every one
in the house was to him an example of virtue, and that he was not
scandalized at any one besides himself. It was his usual saying,
that he did not think there was a man in the world, that on one side
received from God so great and continual favors, and yet on the other
side was so ungrateful, and so slothful in his service as himself.
It was his desire that, after his death, his body might be thrown
upon some dunghill, in punishment of the sins he had committed by
pampering it. The chief reasons why he would have his Order called
The Society of Jesus, were lest his name should be given it, and
that his followers might be known by their love and zeal for their
Redeemer. As often as he spoke of his Order, he called it, This least
Society; for he would have his children to look upon themselves as
the last and least of all persons in the Church.
From the perfect mortification of all his passions and inordinate
affections resulted an admirable peace and evenness of mind which
nothing seemed able ever to disturb or ruffle. His contempt of the
world appeared by the disinterestedness with which he rejected
legacies and presents whenever they might give occasion to
complaints. When he looked up towards the heavens, he used feelingly
to repeat, “How contemptible doth earth appear when I behold the
heavens!” Charity, or the most ardent and pure love of God, was
the most conspicuous, and the crown of all his other virtues. He
had often in his mouth these words, which he took for his motto or
device, “To the greater glory of God,” referring to this end, with
all his strength, himself, his Society, and all his actions, in which
he always chose that which appeared to him the most perfect. He often
said to God, “Lord, what do I desire, or what can I desire besides
thee?” True love is never idle; and always to labor, to promote God’s
honor, or to suffer for his sake, was this saint’s greatest pleasure.
He said, that no created thing can bring to a soul such solid joy
and comfort as to suffer for Christ. Being asked what was the most
certain and the shortest way to perfection, he answered, “To endure
for the love of Christ many and grievous afflictions. Ask this grace
of our Lord: on whomsoever he bestoweth it, he does him many other
signal favors, that always attend this grace.” Out of this burning
love of God, he most ardently desired the separation of his soul
from his mortal body, when it should be God’s will; and, when he
thought of death, he could not refrain from tears of joy, because he
should then see his loving Redeemer; and, beholding God face to face,
should love and praise him eternally, without let, abatement, or
intermission.
From this same love of God sprang his ardent thirst for the salvation
of men, for which he undertook so many and so great things, and to
which he devoted his watchings, prayers, tears, and labors. When he
dismissed any missionaries to preach the word of God, he usually
said to them, “Go, brethren, inflame the world, spread about that
fire which Jesus Christ came to kindle on earth.” To gain others to
Christ he, with admirable address, made himself all to all, going in
at _their_ door, and coming out at _his own_. He received sincere
penitents with the greatest sweetness and condescension, so as often
to take upon himself part of their penance. When a brother, growing
weary of the yoke of Christ, had determined to leave the Society,
St. Ignatius by his remonstrances made such an impression upon
his heart, that falling at the feet of the general, he offered to
undergo whatever punishment he would impose upon him. To which the
saint replied, “One part of your penance shall be, that you never
repent more of having served God. For the other part, I take it
upon myself, and will discharge it for you.” He endeavored to bring
all his penitents to make, without reserve, the perfect sacrifice
of themselves to God, telling them, that it is not to be expressed
what precious treasures God reserves for, and with what effusion
he communicates himself to, those who give themselves to him with
their whole heart. He proposed to them for their model this prayer,
which he used often to recite,--“Receive, O Lord, all my liberty, my
memory, my understanding, and my whole will. You have given me all
that I have, all that I possess, and I surrender all to your divine
will, that you dispose of me. Give me only your love, and your grace.
With this I am rich enough, and I have no more to ask.”
St. Ignatius was general of the Society fifteen years, three months,
and nine days; but was in the end so worn out with infirmities, that
he procured that the Society should choose him an assistant in that
office. This was F. Jerom Nadal. After which, the saint reserved to
himself only the care of the sick, and spent his time in continual
prayer, and in preparing himself for death. By way of his last
will and testament, he dictated certain holy maxims concerning the
obligation and conditions of religious obedience, which he bequeathed
to his brethren of the Society. The saint, on the day before he
died, charged F. Polancus to beg his Holiness’s blessing for him at
the article of death, though others at that time did not think it
so near. The next morning having lifted up his eyes and hands to
heaven, and pronouncing, both with his tongue and heart, the sweet
name of Jesus with a serene countenance, he calmly gave up his happy
soul into the hands of his Creator on the last day of July, in the
year 1556, the sixty-fifth of his age, the thirty-fifth after his
conversion, and the sixteenth after his confirmation of the Society.
The people esteemed him a saint both living and after his death; and
the opinion of his sanctity was confirmed by many miracles.[359] He
saw his Society in very few years divided into twelve provinces,
with above one hundred colleges, and spread over almost the whole
world. In 1626, it contained thirty-six provinces, and in them eight
hundred houses, and fifteen thousand Jesuits, since which time it is
much increased. St. Ignatius’s body was buried first in the little
church of the Jesuits, dedicated in honor of the blessed Virgin in
Rome. When cardinal Alexander Farnesius had built the stately church
of the professed house called Il Giesu, it was translated thither
in 1587; and, in 1637, was laid under the altar of the chapel,
which bears his name. This church is one of the most magnificent
piles of building in the world next to the Vatican, and is not less
admired for the elegance of the architecture than for its riches,
consisting in costly beautiful ornaments of gold, silver, jewels,
exquisite paintings, statues, and carving, and a great profusion
of fine marble. Among the many chapels which it contains, those of
the Blessed Virgin, of the Angels, of SS. Abundius and Abundantius,
martyrs, of St. Francis Borgia, and of St. Ignatius, are the
admiration of travellers, especially the last; in which the remains
of the holy founder lie, in a rich silver shrine under the altar,
exposed to view. The other glittering rich ornaments of this place
seem almost to lose their lustre when the statue of the saint is
uncovered. It is somewhat bigger than the life, because raised high.
Its bright shining gold, silver, and sparkling diamonds, especially
in the crown of glory over the head, dazzle the eye. In the professed
house are shown the pictures of St. Ignatius and St. Philip Neri,
taken from the life. St. Ignatius’s chamber is now a chapel, his
study is another, in which prelates, and sometimes popes, come to
say mass on the saint’s festival. He was beatified by Paul V. in
1609, and canonized by Gregory XV. in 1622, though the bull was only
published the year following by Urban VIII.
The example of the saints evinces that to disengage our affections
from earthly things, and to converse much in heaven by the constant
union of our hearts to God, is the short road to Christian
perfection. Those who are employed in the active life, ought to learn
the art of accompanying all their actions with a lively attention
to the divine presence, as our guardian angels are faithful in
discharging every duty of that external ministry which God hath
committed to them, yet so as never to intermit their contemplation
of the Godhead, and their incessant homages of praise and love,
which are the uninterrupted employment of their happy state. Without
this precaution, by the hurry of dry studies, and even the discharge
of the sacred ministry itself, the spirit of piety and devotion is
extinguished in the heart, and the more sacred functions are easily
profaned.