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General Objectives
To understand the concept of identity and to identify the experiences and people make up our identity.
To analyze the different stages of Ignatius of Loyola’s life to identify how he changes and evolves on every stage.
To identify the importance of Ignatius of Loyola in our identity as “Gabrielinos”.
Don´t forget to bring your CARDBOARD A3 or A4 to make the activity "lifetime line of Ignatius de Loyola" group activity in our classroom next week
Due date: Tuesday, December 16th
Read the Bibliography of Ignatius de Loyola and answer the 10 questions based on your reading.
Early Life of Ignatius of Loyola (Stage 0)
Iñigo Lopez de Loyola y Oñaz, the last child in
the family of Don Beltrán and Doña Marina, was born in 1491 at the small castle
of Loyola located in the Iraugí valley of the Basque province of Guipúzcoa in
northern Spain. This year was very important for the Kingdom of Spain.
Cristóbal Colón was seeking aid from the Queen for a trip to find the Indies by
sailing west and the Gran Capitán, Gonzalo de Córdoba, was gathering his army
for the final assault on Granada, the last Moorish city in Spain.
In 1507, at the age of 16, the eighth son of
the Loyola family was offered a place at the court of Juan Velazquez de
Cuéllar. And so, in the year of his father's death, Iñigo, blue-eyed, short of
stature, his blond-red hair to his shoulders, found himself removed from the
"country" and become a man "in the king's service."
The Court where Iñigo lived was a place of intrigue,
dalliance and corruption. Until he was 26, he was a typical courtier of the
time: an observer of rigid ceremonial and manners, an avid reader of the
chivalric romances of the day, a vain and fancy dresser, an expert dancer, a
pursuer of women, a man obsessed with "honor" and sensitive to any
"insult," and a young gallant who used influence to escape trial for
grave crimes.
Eventually he found himself at the age of 30 in May of 1521 as an
officer defending the fortress of the town of Pamplona against the French, who
claimed the territory as their own against Spain. The Spaniards were terribly
outnumbered and the commander of the Spanish forces wanted to surrender, but
Ignatius convinced him to fight on for the honor of Spain, if not for victory.
During the battle a cannon ball struck Ignatius, wounding one leg and breaking
the other. Because they admired his courage, the French soldiers carried him
back to recover at his home, the castle of Loyola, not to prison.
His leg was set but did not heal, so it was
necessary to break it again and reset it, all without anesthesia. As it grew
worse, Ignatius was finally told that he should prepare for death.
On the feast of Saints Peter and Paul he took
an unexpected turn for the better. The leg healed, but when it did the bone
protruded below the knee and one leg was shorter than the other. This was
unacceptable to Ignatius, who considered it a fate worse than death not to be
able to wear the long, tight-fitting boots. Therefore he ordered the doctors to
saw off the offending knob of bone and lengthen the leg by systematic
stretching. Again, all of this was done without anesthesia. Unfortunately, this
was not a successful procedure. All his life he walked with a limp because one
leg was shorter than the other.
Questions:
1.
What
things do you think Ignatius considered important at this stage of his life?
(1pt)
2.
How
do you describe the personality of Ignatius in this first text? (1pt)
Conversion (Stage 1)
During the long weeks of his recovery, he was
extremely bored and asked for some romance novels to pass the time. Luckily
there were none in the castle of Loyola, but there was a copy of the life of
Christ and a book on the saints. Desperate, Ignatius began to read them. The
more he read, the more he considered the life of the saints worth imitating.
However, at the same time he continued to have daydreams of fame and glory,
along with fantasies of winning the love of a certain noble lady of the court.
He noticed, however, that after reading and thinking of the saints and Christ
he was at peace and satisfied. But, when he finished his long daydreams of fame
and his noble lady, he would feel restless and unsatisfied.
This experience was
the beginning of his conversion and of spiritual discernment.
Eventually,
completely converted from his old desires and plans of romance and worldly
conquests, and recovered from his wounds enough to travel, he left the castle
in March of 1522.
He had decided that he wanted to go to Jerusalem to live where our Lord
had spent his life on earth. As a first step he began his journey to Barcelona.
Even though
he had been converted completely from his old ways, he did not have the true
spirit of charity and Christian understanding, as shown by an encounter he had
with a Moor on his way to Barcelona. The Moor and he came together on the road,
both riding mules, and they began to debate religious matters. The Moor claimed
that the Blessed Virgin was not a virgin in her life after Christ was born.
Ignatius thought that this was such an insult that he was in a dilemma as to
what to do. They came to a junction in the road, and Ignatius decided that he
would let circumstances direct his course of action. The Moor went down one
direction. Ignatius let the reins of his mule drop. If his mule followed the
Moor, he would kill him. If the mule took the other direction he would let the
Moor live. Ignatius' mule took the opposite direction from the Moor and the
Moor lived.
He proceeded to the Benedictine shrine of Our
Lady of Montserrat, made a general confession, and knelt all night in vigil
before Our Lady's altar. He left his sword and knife at the altar, went out and
gave away all his fine clothes to a poor man, and dressed himself in rough
clothes with sandals.
Questions:
1.
What books or copies did Ignatius find in the
castle? (1pt)
2.
After talking with the Moor, what does
Ignatius decide to do? (1 pt)
Ignatius the Pilgrim (Stage 2)
He continued towards Barcelona but stopped along the river Cardoner at a
town called Manresa. He stayed in a cave outside the town, intending to stay
only a few days, but he remained for ten months. He spent hours each day in
prayer and also worked in a hospice. It was while here that the ideas for what
are now known as the Spiritual Exercises
began to take shape. It was also on the banks of this river that he had a
vision. Ignatius never said exactly what the vision was, but it seems it was an
experience that allowed Ignatius to find God in all things.
It was also during this period at Manresa, that
he undertook many extreme penances. He had not yet learned moderation and true
spirituality.
He finally arrived at Barcelona, took a boat to
Italy, and ended up in Rome where he met Pope Adrian VI and requested
permission to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. When he arrived in the Holy
Land he wanted to stay, but the Franciscan superior told him that the situation
there was too dangerous and ordered him to leave.
The Return to School
By now he was 33 years old and determined to study to become a priest.
He started studying Latin grammar with young boys in a school in Barcelona.
After two years he moved on to the University of Alcala. There he would gather
students and adults to explain the Gospels to them and teach them how to pray.
His efforts attracted the attention of the Inquisition and he was thrown into
jail for 42 days. Ignatius moved on to the University of Salamanca. There, in
just two weeks, the Dominicans had thrown him back into prison again. Finally
he was told that he could only teach children. Once more he left, this time to
Paris.
At the University of Paris he began school
again, studying Latin grammar and literature, philosophy, and theology. It was
also in Paris that he began sharing a room with Francis Xavier and Peter Faber.
He greatly influenced a few other students directing them all for thirty days
in what we now call the Spiritual Exercises. Eventually six of them plus
Ignatius decided to take vows of chastity and poverty and to go to the Holy
Land. If going to the Holy Land became impossible, they would then go to Rome
and place themselves at the disposal of the. They did not think of doing this
as a religious order or congregation, but as individual priests.
Questions:
1.
What
do you think was Ignatius searching when he stayed in Manresa in a cave praying
and working close to the poor? (1pt)
2.
Why
do you think he finally decides to return to Spain to study priesthood and decides
to explain the Gospels and teach students how to pray? (1pt)
The Company of Jesus (Stage 3)
Ignatius, along with three of his companions, Francis Xavier, Peter
Faber and James Lainez, decided to go to Rome and place themselves at the
disposal of the Pope. During the following Lent, Ignatius asked all of his
companions to come to Rome to discuss their future. They had never thought of
founding a religious order, but now that going to Jerusalem was not an option,
they had to think about their future - whether they would stay together or not.
After many weeks of prayer and discussion, they decided to form a community,
with the Pope's approval, in which they would vow obedience to a superior
general who would hold office for life. They would place themselves at the
disposal of the Holy Father to travel wherever he should wish and for whatever
duties. Formal approval of this new order was given by Pope Paul III on 1540.
Since they had referred to themselves as the Company of Jesus (in Latin Societatis
Jesu), in English their order became known as the Society of Jesus. The
company called themselves “friends in the Lord”. Ignatius was elected to be
superior. On the Friday of Easter week, April 22, 1541, at the Church of St.
Paul Outside-the-Walls, the friends pronounced their vows in the newly formed
Order.
The Last Years
Ignatius, whose love it was to be
actively involved in teaching catechism to children, directing adults in
the Spiritual Exercises, and working among the poor, would
sacrifice this love for the next fifteen years - until his death - directing
this new society throughout the world. He would spend years composing the
Constitutions of the Society and would write thousands of letters to all
corners of the globe to his fellow Jesuits dealing with the affairs of the
Society and to lay men and women directing them in the spiritual life. From his
tiny quarters in Rome he would live to see in his lifetime the Society of Jesus
grow from eight to a thousand members, with colleges and houses all over Europe
and as far away as Brazil and Japan.
Questions:
1.
According
to your reading. Why do you think Ignatius and his companions decided to form a
community? (1pt)
2.
What
do you think means to be “friends in the Lord”? (1pt)
The Jesuits and Schools
Perhaps the work of the Society of
Jesus that is best known is that of education, yet it is interesting that Ignatius
had no intention of including teaching among the Jesuits' works at the
beginning. Even though St. Ignatius Loyola and his first companions were
graduates of the University of Paris, the original works of the Society of
Jesus did not include educational institutions. The goal of the Society was to
be ready to move where the need was greatest.
However, before 1548 Ignatius had opened
schools in Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, and India, but
they were intended for the education of the new young Jesuit recruits. Ten such
colleges within six years showed the rapid growth of the Jesuits. In 1548,
Ignatius sent five men to open a school for lay as well as Jesuit students.
In the Constitutions, Ignatius mandated that
Jesuit education should follow the method of the University of Paris. This
meant, first, a stress on the humanities; second, a system to learn from
several branches of knowledge; third, repetition of material; and, fourth, the
active involvement of the students in their own education through argumentation
and discussion.
Jesuit involvement in education continued to
grow very fast. The system of Jesuit schools developed and expanded for more
than two hundred years and continues to exist nowadays.
The Society of Jesus proclaims that the service
of faith through the promotion of justice is the most important mission of each
Jesuit work. Its purpose in education,
then, is to form men and women "for others." The Society of Jesus has
always wanted to inspire students with values that transcend the goals of
money, fame and success. It wants graduates who will be leaders concerned about
society and the world in which they live. It wants graduates who desire to
eliminate hunger and conflict in the world and who are sensitive to the need
for more equitable distribution of the world's goods. It wants graduates who
seek to end discrimination and who are eager to share their faith with others.
Questions:
1.
What
was the goal of the Society of Jesus if education was not in first place? (1pt)
2.
How
can Jesuit educational institutions contribute to our society? (1pt)
