On July 31, the Church remembers Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus (also known as Jesuits).

But who was Ignatius of Loyola?

Ignatius was the youngest son of a Basque nobleman. he was born at his family’s ancestral castle at Loyola in north-east Spain. He served as a page at the court of King Ferdinand V of Castile, and later entered military service, being seriously wounded at the French siege of Pamplona in 1521.

During his lengthy convalescence (his leg never properly healed and he was left with a permanent limp) he read the life of Christ and biographies of various saints. The result was that he resolved to devote himself to the spiritual life. He went on pilgrimage to Montserrat (near Barcelona), where he hung up his sword over the altar and exchanged clothes with a beggar.

He then spent about a year at nearby Manresa, first working in a hospital there, then living as a hermit in a cave. He studied Thomas à Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ and it was probably during this year that he wrote the Spiritual Exercises, a manual of Christian prayer and meditation which has subsequently been used and valued by Christians of many denominations and traditions.

After a pilgrimage to Rome and Jerusalem, he returned to Spain in 1524 and studied at the universities of Barcelona, Alcalá and Salamanca (where he fell foul of the Inquisition because of his unauthorized preaching). He went on to Paris to continue his studies and it was there in 1534 that Ignatius and a group of six students (including Francis Xavier) vowed to go as missionaries to Islamic Palestine.

In 1537 the group, now ten in number, finding that war prevented them travelling beyond Venice, offered their services to the Pope. By 1540 they had been ordained and with papal approval formed the Society of Jesus, with a vow of personal obedience to the Pope in addition to the traditional three monastic vows of poverty, obedience, and chastity.

Ignatius was elected the first general of the order and in the remaining 15 years of his life saw the order grow a hundred-fold and to be in the vanguard of both the Counter Reformation and the missionary work of the Roman Catholic Church. He died on 31 July 1556.

His prayer has become treasured by Christians of all traditions:

Teach us, good Lord,
to serve you as you deserve;
to give and not to count the cost;
to fight and not to heed the wounds;
to toil and not to seek for rest;
to labour and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do your will;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Revd Paul A. Carr and Extract from Saints on Earth: A biographical companion to Common Worship by John H Darch and Stuart K Burns