MONTAÑÉS, Juan Martínez
St Ignatius Loyola (detail)
c. 1610
Polychromed wood
Chapel, Seville University
Iñigo de Recalde de Loyola, youngest of thirteen (one of my sources says eleven) children of Don Beltran Ya'ñez de Loyola and Maria Sa'enz de Licona y Balda, was born in 1491 in the family castle in the Basque province of Gu'ipozcoa, in northeastern Spain, near the French border. As befitted a boy from an aristocratic family, he spent some time as a page at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, the rulers of Spain. Here, by his later testimony, he was involved in gambling, wenching, and duelling.
He became a soldier and was wounded in the leg in his first battle. During his convalescence, [h]e asked for tales of knightly adventure, but instead was given a "Life of Christ", written by a Carthusian monk. He read it, and his life was transformed. He went on pilgrimage to Montserrat (near Barcelona), where he hung up his sword over the altar, and then spent about a year at Manresa near Montserrat first working as a nurse and orderly in a hospital there, and then retiring to a cave to live as a hermit and study "The Imitation of Christ", by Thomas a Kempis, a book urging the Christian to take Christ as example, and seek daily to follow in His footsteps. It is probably during this year that he wrote his Spiritual Exercises, a manual of Christian prayer and meditation.
He became a preacher, but was told that in order to preach, he needed an education.
Back in Spain, he spent ten years (1524-1534) getting an education at Barcelona, Alcala', Salamanca, and Paris, beginning by going to elementary school to learn Latin grammar, and ending with a Master of Arts degree from the University of Paris.
He founded the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, beginning with ten men, including Francis Xavier.
In 1537 the Jesuits (now ten in number) gathered in Venice and (having found that renewed war in Palestine made journeying there impossible) offered their services to Pope Paul III. Ignatius and some of the others were ordained to the priesthood, and they were assigned various tasks. In 1540 they became a formal organization, with the usual monastic vows, plus a fourth vow of personal obedience to the Pope.
Hmmm. The Jesuits seemed a bit free-wheeling, even back in ancient days when I was a student at my Jesuit University. Perhaps, even then, they allowed themselves a bit of leeway in the personal obedience to the pope vow.
I owe the Jesuits a huge debt, because they put me on the way toward ending my racist ways. Racism was all I knew before my university days, because that's what I was taught. The Jesuits taught me differently.
Also, we were required to take a number of theology and philosophy courses, which I did not take too seriously back then, but, in spite of my bad attitude, a little learning rubbed off as I was studying for the tests, even as I forgot the great bulk of the material once the test was over.
I really liked the courses in logic and ontology, so I absorbed and retained more of what was taught in those classes. I do believe that I learned a bit about how to think and reason, and I am appalled by the absence of logical reasoning that abounds today. Geometry was the only math I ever liked, and I think it's because it's based on logic, rather than numbers.
On a personal note, my family was poor when I attended the university, but even as I thought my clothes were few and not really good enough, I was somehow voted one of the ten best-dressed co-eds while I was there. How that happened is still a mystery to me. After that, how could I complain at home that I did not have nice enough clothes? One old philosophy professor, who was a brilliant teacher in his prime, but during my time should have been retired, never called me by my name after that, but called me Miss Best Dressed. As I write this, he reminds me of someone else I know.
A prayer of Ignatius Loyola:
Teach us, good Lord, to serve thee as thou deservest;
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 labor, and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do thy will.
From James Kiefer at the The Lectionary.
PRAYER
O God, by whose grace your servant Ignatius, enkindled with the fire of your love, became a burning and a shining light in your Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and may ever walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
READINGS
Psalm 34:1-8
1 Corinthians 10:31 - 11:1
Luke 9:57-62
Image from The Web Gallery of Art.
Note: The text is from my post on the feast day from last year.
