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Saint for the Month of July 2003;
Ignatius of Loyola
'We were
created to praise, to reverence and praise God. And everything
else on the face of earth was created for our sake, to help us
achieve the goal for which we were created.'
' in a time of
desolation, never forsake the good resolutions you made in
better times. strive to remain patient --- a virtue contrary to
the troubles that harass you -- and remember that you will be
consoled.'
" Ignatius
Loyola ( July 31 ) "
Ignatius was
born a nobleman's son in the castle of Loyola in the country of
the Basques. Ignatius began his career as a soldier in the army
of the Duke of Negara. At the siege of Pamplona AD1521 he was
seriously wounded and needed to convalesce for months. during
this time he read the life of Jesus and the lives of saints.
'Since these were as human as I, he noted, I could be as saintly
as they were'.
After his
recovery, instead of re-enlisting as a soldier, he exchanged his
military dress for the clothing of a beggar and visited the
famous portrait of the Virgin in the Benedictine monastery at
Montserrat in Barcelona, thereto hang his sword before the
portrait of the Virgin.
Ignatius
retired to a place called Manresa, and in deep prayer and
discipline wrote the first draft of his famous Spiritual
Exercises, a manual for training the soul to grow daily nearer
God.
The saint now
went on a pilgrimage to Rome and to Jerusalem, riding on a
donkey from Jaffa to the Holy City. On his return to Europe, he
devoted himself to study for the next seven years at Spanish
Universities and in Paris.
In Paris was
laid the foundation of the society of Jesus, which Ignatius
founded. Six students joined him vowing poverty, chastity and
obedience, joining themselves together by means of the Spiritual
Exercises determining their studies were to preach Christianity
in Palestine.
War in the
middle East made this plan impossible. Instead Ignatius and his
followers offered their services to Pope Paul III. In 1540 the
Pope formally approved the Society of Jesus. Ignatius lived
another sixteen years, during which time he tirelessly watched
over the development which soon had a thousand adherents
throughout Europe working as missionaries and in universities
and in schools.
'Prefer neither health nor sickness,
neither riches nor poverty,
neither honour nor ignominy,
neither a long life nor a short one'
"
Ignatius of Loyola "
Richard F. Sibley--July 2003 |