Ignatius of Loyola
1491–1556
Feast: July 31
You don't back down, and when you fight, you fight with a plan and with everything you have. Ignatius was exactly that. As an officer he defends Pamplona until a cannonball shatters his leg. The real battle happens on his sickbed: the vain soldier is converted, and becomes a strategist for God. Out of that turning point he forges the Spiritual Exercises, a school of the soul with a soldier's precision, still given strictly by his method in traditional houses to this day. He founds the Jesuits and places them under a single watchword: "Everything for the greater glory of God." He never gave up the fight, he only changed battlefields. And you: where do you throw your full strength?
From his life
- Soldier, wounded at Pamplona
- Conversion on his sickbed
- The Spiritual Exercises
- Founds the Jesuits
- “Everything for the greater glory of God”
The bridge to tradition
In traditional houses, the Exercises are still given strictly according to his method to this day.