Ignatius of Loyola

Life

Ignatius was born into a noble family in the Basque region of northern Spain; his birth name was Íñigo López de Loyola. As a young man he served at court and in the army. In 1521, at the Battle of Pamplona, his leg was badly wounded by a cannonball. During his convalescence he read a life of Christ and lives of the saints, and he is said to have experienced a conversion at this time. The following year he made a pilgrimage to the monastery of Montserrat and then spent about a year in prayer and penance at Manresa. The experiences of this period later became the foundation of the Spiritual Exercises. In 1523 he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

He then studied in Barcelona, Alcalá, and Salamanca before going on to the University of Paris. In 1534, together with six companions, including Francis Xavier and Peter Faber, he took vows of poverty and chastity at Montmartre in Paris. In 1537 he was ordained a priest in Venice. In 1540 Pope Paul III approved the group as the "Society of Jesus," and the following year Ignatius was elected its first superior general. He led the order until his death in Rome in 1556. He was canonized by the Catholic Church in 1622.

Ministry and Achievements

• The Spiritual Exercises: A manual for retreats (periods spent in a quiet place devoted to prayer) that guides the retreatant over roughly four weeks to meditate on the life of Christ, reflect on his or her own life, and come to a decision. It received papal approval in 1548. Its best-known methods are imaginative prayer, in which one places oneself within a scene from Scripture and meditates on it, and the examination of consciousness (the Examen), a prayerful review of one's day.
• Rules for the discernment of spirits: Guidelines for examining the movements of the heart by distinguishing between "consolation," which draws a person toward God, and "desolation," which draws a person away from God. They were offered as criteria for discerning what comes from God.
• Work of the Society of Jesus: Taking as its motto "For the greater glory of God," the Society devoted itself to education and foreign missions. During Ignatius's lifetime a number of schools were founded, including the Roman College (the forerunner of today's Pontifical Gregorian University). In the wake of the Reformation, the Jesuits became a leading force in the Catholic Reformation, also known as the Counter-Reformation.

Influence on the Korean Church

Works of Western learning written in Classical Chinese by Jesuit missionaries in China, such as Matteo Ricci, were read by Joseon scholars and formed part of the background to the introduction of Catholicism into Korea. The Jesuits founded Sogang University in 1960.

Among Protestants, growing interest in spiritual formation since the 1990s has led to the introduction of the Spiritual Exercises, the Examen, and spiritual direction (a ministry of accompaniment that helps a person discern the path of faith) in some seminaries, retreats, and Christian counseling settings. This trend is also connected to the debate over contemplative prayer.

Assessment

The Catholic Church honors him as a figure who laid the foundations of modern Catholic spirituality, education, and missions. In Protestant history, the Jesuits were long regarded with suspicion because they had been a force opposed to the Reformation.

Protestant assessments today are divided. Some evangelicals regard his methods of prayer and principles of discernment as practical wisdom that can be used regardless of denomination, and they have embraced them. On the other hand, some within the conservative Reformed camp criticize an approach that emphasizes imaginative prayer and inner experience, arguing that it can obscure the principle of sola Scriptura ("Scripture alone") and drift into mysticism.