Ignatius of Loyola
Ignatius of Loyola (also: Íñigo López de Loyola, born May 31, 1491 Castle Loyola in Azpeitia, Basque Country, Spain, † July 31, 1556 in Rome ) was the largest co-founder and designer of the later also known as Jesuits Society of Jesus (lat. : Societas Jesu, SJ). He was canonized in 1622.
Life and work
The stages in the life of Ignatius of Loyola, he describes himself in the so-called Autobiography of St. Ignatius, a spiritual autobiography, in which he describes the way that God had brought him:
López de Loyola came from a Basque noble family. He was the youngest son of Don Beltrán Yañez de onez y Loyola and his wife María Sáenz de Lieona y Balda. When his father died in 1507, he became a page at the court of Juan Velázquez de Cuéllar. When in 1517 his employer died, López de Loyola joined the military and served under the Duke of Nájera and Viceroy of Navarre, Antonio Manrique de Lara ( Lara House ).
On May 20, 1521 in the defense of Pamplona against the French troops Loyola was seriously wounded by a cannon ball. According to tradition, he read in the sick bed instead of his favorite knight romances theological literature and therefore came to reflect on his lifestyle. During his convalescence at the Montserrat Monastery, he made his confession, which lasted, according to tradition three days. 1522 he left, who had come as a knight and nobleman, the monastery as beggars and pilgrims. His arms he left at the altar of the monastery church.
There was about a year as a penitent in Manresa - drop his large inner experiences, which he wrote down in his book Spiritual Exercises in this time - and a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. This seems to be also in the report of the pilgrims Peter Zürcher's Füssli, in the same ship as he reached the holy land and the discrete group of Spanish fellow traveler described.
Until 1526 López de Loyola took in Barcelona after so much education that he was admitted to a degree. In this year he began to study at the University of Alcalá philosophy and theology. Through his views he fell on after a short time of the Inquisition. After serious survey López de Loyola was detained there for eight weeks. 1527 he moved to the University of Salamanca, but even there he was spied by the Inquisition, interrogated and eventually excluded from theological studies.
In June 1528, he therefore fled to France. At the Sorbonne he studied with financial support further by Spanish merchants in France and Flanders and ended on March 15, 1534 his studies with the title of Master of Arts. One then re- recorded theology studies, he did not finish. While studying in Paris, he became friends with six fellow students, Peter Faber, Francis Xavier, Simon Rodrigues de Azevedo, Diego Lainez, Alfonso Salmerón and Nicolás Bobadilla. On August 15, 1534 Assumption, praised the seven men in the chapel of St. Denis in Montmartre poverty, chastity and mission in Palestine. This common pledge Montmartre is considered as the nucleus of that community, which was called from 1539 Compañía de Jesús.
On June 24, 1537 López de Loyola was ordained along with Diego Lainez in Venice as a priest, where he stayed from 1535 to travel to Jerusalem. Due to the uncertain political situation was not to think of a mission trip to the Holy Land. So they replaced the acclaimed missionary of the Holy Land by the willingness to enter into the service of the pope and in particular to proselytize in the areas that the Catholic Church had lost by the Reformation. Shortly thereafter traveled Ignatius and his friends to Rome and the Pope wore their intention before. Pope Paul III. took their Formula Instituti read and approved three years later with the Bull Regimini militantis ecclesiae of 27 September 1540, the Society of Jesus. This provisional permission was subject to the condition that the Order, the number of members should not exceed 60. 1541 Ignatius was appointed the first Superior General.
The new group already caused by a sensation that they rejected their own habit. In addition, she was inspired in her tight hierarchy of military ranks. The monastic rules differed from usual and were based on military disciplinary rules. At the same time Loyola and his followers new sermon forms were open-minded about, to meet their ambitious mission objectives. It quickly became a major vehicle for the Order of the Counter-Reformation. 1546 was officially the Loyola community, the original definition fall to 60 members, followed by strong growth, particularly in Spain began. 1549 made a papal bull the departments of the Society of Jesus, regardless of the bishops of their operation areas, a fact that contributed to a centralized management of the Order as in the universal Church.
In the summer of 1556 ill López de Loyola violent fever and a chronic illness. On July 30th 1556 he called for the Extreme Unction and the papal blessing. At dawn of the following day Ignatius of Loyola died at the age of 65. His final resting place is officially in the Gesù in Rome, the church of the mother house of his order. Historians doubt whether the body Ignatius actually get and in Rome is found. The Jesuit order already counted 1000 members at his death.
Afterlife
Ignatius was beatified on 27 July 1609 by Pope Paul V, and on 22 May 1622 by Pope Gregory XV. canonized. His feast day in the Catholic and Anglican Church be dying day, July 31. The farmer was usually for the day: "Just as Ignaz sets in the next January will be. "
With the Apostolic Constitution Summorum Pontificum on July 25, 1922, Pope Pius XI. the saint patron of all spiritual retreats.