Timeline of the life and history of St. Ignatius of Loyola
BY: Nepha Ramclam, Marcus Rodriguez and Allen Mira
Birth Of St. Ignatius of Loyola
- Iñigo Lopez de Oñaz y Loyola(St. Ignatius) was born in the castle of Loyola in northeastern Spain.
- He was born into a family culture of high catholic piety but misguided morals.
- He was the youngest of the 13 children of Marina Saenz de Licona y Balda Maria and Don Beltrán Yañez de Oñaz y Loyola.
1491
Ignatius moves to Arevalo to serve as a page and later becomes a knight
1506 -17
- At the age of 15, Ignatius moved to Arevalo which is 32 miles North of Avila, Spain.
- Ignatius decided to move in order to serve as a page.
- A page is a man or boy employed as the personal attendant of a person of rank.
- He served in the household of a relative named Juan Velázquez de Cuéllar, Treasurer of King Ferdinand of Castile.
- After he served as a page, he served as a courtier at the courts of leading Spanish noblemen.
- During this time, Ignatius was known for being a fancy dresser, an expert dancer, a womanizer and sensitive to insult.
- In 1517, Ignatius became a knight in the service of another relative, Antonio Manrique de Lara, duke of Nájera and viceroy of Navarre
Ignatius gets hit with Cannonball and shatters his leg
1521
- In the spring of 1521, Ignatius was hit with a cannonball while trying to defend the city of Pamplona from French soldiers.
- As a result, his right leg was shattered and he was carried back home to the castle of Loyola, where his condition worsened.
- While recovering, he read the available books which were an illustrated Life of Christ and a book of saint's legends. He often dreamt of a great lady whom he admired and he also dreamt of the things he could do to imitate the saints in the books he read.
- He began to reflect and analyze those experiences. He noticed that he felt empty and dissatisfied after his romantic dreams were over but he felt deep peace and happiness after his spiritual dream had ended.
- He realized that God was leading him by his feelings to pursue a new way of life.
- He succumbed to his feelings and decided to turm his life around.
Ignatius pursues his new life
- In February 1522, Ignatius said his goodbyes to his family and went to Montserrat, a place of pilgrimage in northeastern Spain.
- He confessed all his sins over the course of 3 days, and hung his sword and dagger near the statue of the Virgin Mary as a symbol of moving on from his past ways. Also, he clothed himself in sackcloth.
- The next day he went to Manresa, Spain, where he lived as a beggar, ate and drank sparingly, scourged himself and neither combed nor trimmed his hair and nails.
- He attended mass daily and often spent time in prayer with God in a cave outside Manresa.
- He began to see visions and started to understand spiritual things and things of the faith. However, he experienced doubts, anxieties, scruples, severe depression and even contemplated suicide.
- He recorded his experiences into a notebook which would later turn into the spiritual exercises.
- Ignatius left Barcelona and traveled to Jerusalem in March 1523.
- While trying to convert the "infidel", the Franciscans were fed up with his schemes and was forced to leave. He then returned to Barcelona(1524) where he did private studies and started to engage people in conversations about spiritual matters.
- As a result, Ignatius was jailed 3 times for interrogation. Ignatius studied at Barcelona for nearly two years. In 1526 he transferred to Alcalá.
- He began to gain followers but soon fell under suspicions of heresy multiple times. This prompted him to leave his disciples and Spain.
1522-26
Ignatius moves to Paris
- On February 2nd, 1528, Ignatius arrived to Paris where he would study at the College Ste. Barbe of the University of Paris.
- He was not fluent in French but he made gradual progress.
- Due to the difference between the curriculum of Spain and Paris, Ignatius had to restart his studies.
- He started all over again with grammar, language and the humanities, and only then moved on to the sciences, philosophy and theology.
1528
Ignatius' first companions
- Ignatius continued with his studies and gathered some new disciples whose way of living caused such a stir that he had to explain himself to the religious authorities. This event lead him to stay away from public religious endeavor until he reached the priesthood.
- Eventually, he received his Master's degree at the Collège de Sainte-Barbe. The name on the dimploma was not Inigo, but Ignatius, which he would later use for the rest of his life.
- Ignatius roomed with Peter Faber, a young man from Savoy in the south of France, and Francis Xavier, a nobleman from the eastern end of the Basque country.
- The three men bonded closely as a result of them going through the spiritual exercises.
- On August 15th, 1535, the three men bound themselves by vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
- In 1535, Ignatius left Paris for health reasons and spent more than 6 months in Spain and then went to Bologna and Venice where he studied privately.
1529-35
Ordination Of St. Ignatius Of Loyola
- On January 8th, 1537, Ignatius' companions joined him in Venice.
- They were all eager to journey to Jerusalem but the war between Venice and Turks halted the sailing of ships.
- Ignatius and most of his companions were ordained to priesthood on June 24th, 1537.
- The men obtained valuable experiences in the ministry and dedicated a lot of time to prayer.
- During those months, Ignatius did not say mass but he had one of the most pivotal experience of his life.
- Ignatius explained to his companions that one day while in prayer, he saw what had appeared to be Jesus Christ the cross on his shoulder and next to him the Eternal Father, who said, “I wish you to take this man for your servant,” and Jesus took him and said, “My will is that you should serve us.”
1537
Founding of the Jesuit Order
- On Christmas Day 1538 Ignatius said his first mass at the Church of St. Mary Major in Rome.
- Ignatius and his companions were entering an extended period of communal discernment and were about to be sent all over Europe and the world.
- They needed a way to secure the bond between themselves.
- So, in 1539 the companions decided to form a permanent union. They took a vow of obedience, poverty and chastity.
- In 1540 Pope Paul III approved the plan of the new order.
- They called themselves the Society of Jesus, which would be later known as the Jesuits.
- Ignatius was elected as their first leader. At first, he declined because he deemed himself as unworthy but after much thought, he obliged.
1538-40
Ignatius' final days
- During his final days, Ignatius wrote Constitutions of the fledgling order and nearly 7,000 letters with the help of his assistant, Juan Polanco. Most of these letters were to his Jesuit companions
- In 1541, Ignatius famously used the phrase " Ite, inflammate omnia"(Go set the world on fire) in a letter he wrote to Francis Xavier before departing to India. This phrase is still used in the Jesuit order today.
- In 1546, Ignatius secretly admitted St. Francis Borgia, duke of Gandía and viceroy of Catalonia into the society.
- In 1548, Ignatius was called before the Roman Inquisitions to have his book of Spiritual exercises examined ; the book was later released.
- Between 1551-1554, Ignatius was frequently sick. He became so ill to the point where he had to beg his associates to accept his decision to resign as superior.
- Despite his chronic ill-health, Ignatius continued to direct the order until his death in July 1556.
- At the time of his death, there were 1,000 Jesuits and that number continued to grow as the years went on.
- St. Ignatius of Loyola was beatified by Pope Paul V in 1609 and canonized by Pope Gregory XV in 1622.
1541-56
What has been St. Ignatius' impact on spirituality and reality?
Ignatian spirituality invites you to just take a moment and ask the deep questions, not just what 's going on, not just for lunch, not just for I got to go meet, not what is on my phone, but to ask the deeper questions, what am I living for? What am I hoping to get out of life? Do I have a purpose? Is there something that is really gnawing at me that's urging me to something greater? Those are the kinds of questions that the Ignatian tradition invites us to ask of ourselves. It's fundamentally about practicing something. Its not intellectual. It is about tradition and teachings passed down by generation for many years. Ignatian spirituality extends to young people because it gives them opportunity to question things in their life. This is a tradition that invites them to slow down at first to ask what has my experience taught me and is God there? And if God is there, then it invites us to take the next step and say, how do I listen to God even more effectively than I have previously? It allows them to have a sense of curiosity.
Questions
In what concrete ways can it be said that his message is timeless and extends to young people today? As you do this, evaluate the essence of Ignatian Spirituality and the different ways it continues to make life meaningful and reflective today.
Jesuit churches, hospitals and even educational institutions have been
built in St. Ignatius’ name. Today, St. Ignatius is widely known in the catholic church, and his legacy and works he did for God are being thought to the younger people of today at their educational institutions. Despite The name of St. Ignatius being embedded in history, his message, influence and teachings have stood the test of time and are being taught in present time to many believers and seekers. But the main question is: why is Ignatian spirituality appropriate for young people and seekers? Well, it’s a spirituality that invites taking a moment to ask the deep questions: What am I living for? What am I hoping to get out of life? Do I have a purpose? Ignatian spirituality gives us practices to help us get better at asking and answering those deeper questions.There are practices that have been brought forth because of St. Ignatius himself. The examen is amongst the most popular one that is practiced largely by many believers and is a form of deep self-reflection that helps you communicate with God and reflect on your daily life.
Question 1b