St. Ignacio De Loyola Analysis

St. Ignacio de Loyola is the founder of “Society of Jesus,” or the Jesuits. Not only was he the founder of a major Catholic order, before this, he was a soldier. His experience as a soldier, particularly at an attack in Pamplona, marked the beginnings of his mystical transformation as the time needed for his recuperation allowed him to read and reflect on religious texts. From there, Loyola embarked on a pilgrimage throughout Europe promoting missionary work and prolific knowledge of religious texts. His mystical venture took root not only in the spiritual reveries, but also within historical context, as the Protestant Reformation emerged to reform the Catholic Church.

Growing up in the Basque country of northeastern Spain, his family raised

him with Catholic culture and a privileged lifestyle. He began his military career at the age of 18, but was forced to terminate this career when he the French expedition forces attacked the fortress at Pamplona and fired a cannonball that hit him in the legs. Ignacio returned to the castle to recover, reading religious texts in his family’s library in the meantime. Inducing spiritual reveries through these readings, he developed a rejuvenated passion for religion, sensing that God was directing him towards a reinvigorated lifestyle. Healed, Ignacio de Loyola embarked on a pilgrimage to visit Jerusalem, however, he detoured and resided in a cave, illuminating himself with visions of God. He recorded his spiritual experiences while in the cave, creating a work titled “Spiritual Exercises,” which was widely translated and distributed around the world. Education and knowledge soon became Ignacio’s primary method in helping the spiritual aspects himself and of community. By 1540, he founded the Society of Jesus, a Catholic religious order characterized by its educational, missionary, and benevolent practices.
The most prominent aspect of St. Ignacio’s mystical experience is his Catholic upbringing and the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, as people started to criticize the Catholic Church amid corruption. His family’s collection of religious literature influenced the growing satisfaction with the relationship and understanding of God. His days in the cave, where he experienced indescribable mystical visions of Christ’s humanity deeply affected his soul. Alternating between the positive illuminating feelings and the hollowness of the dark night of the soul, Ignacio compiled notes of his experience into a major work called “Spiritual Exercises,” with the expectation that his followers would internalize the text to undergo their own mystical experience. The pope officially recognized the Society of Jesus amidst the religious tension. Jesuits were a vital to securing Europeans back into the Catholic faith, especially if they were experimenting with Protestantism.
Moreover, Loyola’s background history influenced the degree of success of his order. His role as a charismatic, committed, knowledgeable leader in this Catholic order gave his followers direction and success in helping souls “lost” in Protestantism. His previous experience as a soldier gave his order an army-like structure, giving him the role similar to a general. This would become vital in the religious “battle” against Protestantism. Additionally, Loyola’s educated, privileged upbringing had influenced his followers to act similarly. The new order’s recruitment was inherently aristocratic, requiring the followers to become educated in these religious texts and to be literate, similar to how St. Ignacio of Loyola discovered the power of God.