JULY 31ST, ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA, CONFESSOR

Last Day of the Month in honor of the Most Precious Blood of OLJC.

Ignatius was a Spaniard by nation, and was born of the noble Biscayan family of Loyola, in the year of our Lord 1491. He followed first the Court and then the army of the Most Catholic King. At the siege of Pampeluna in the year 1521 he received a severe wound which laid him up with a long and dangerous illness. During this time he chanced to read some godly books, and conceived from them a burning desire to follow in the footsteps of Christ and His saints. He betook himself to Monserrat, and there entered himself for the heavenly warfare, by hanging up his weapons, and watching them for a night before the Altar of the Blessed Virgin. Thence he withdrew to Manresa, clad in sackcloth, for he had before given his costly raiment to a beggar. At Manresa he lived upon bread and water, begging the bread, and fasting every day except the Lord's Day. He mastered his flesh by the use of a sharp chain and hair-cloth, slept upon the ground, and lashed himself to bloodshedding with iron scourges. Thus he dwelt for a year, feasted by God with such clear lights, that he was used afterwards to say that even if the Holy Bible had not existed, he would have been ready to die for the faith only on the evidence of those things which the Lord had shown unto him at Manresa. It was at this time that, albeit a man of little education, he put together that wonderful book entitled Spiritual Exercises, whose worth hath been attested by the judgment of the Apostolic See, and by universal usefulness. To make himself of greater use for the profit of souls, he determined to improve himself by education, beginning by going through the rudiments among little boys. He left nothing untried that could help towards the salvation of others, and it was marvellous what pain and mockery he cheerfully accepted on all hands, suffering ill-usage also, imprisonment and stripes almost unto death; but he was willing to suffer them all much more for the greater glory of his Master. At Paris he took to him seven comrades from the members of that University, men of different nations, but who had all taken the Degree of Master of Arts and in Divinity. With these seven he laid the first foundations of the Society of Jesus in the crypt at Montmartre, upon the 15th day of August, in the year of Christ 1534. When he afterwards organised the same Society at Rome he bound it by the closest bonds to the Apostolic See, adding to the three accustomed vows of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience, a fourth, concerning Missions. Paul III. was the first Pope to receive and confirm the Institute, but it has since been approved by other Popes and by the Council of Trent. Ignatius, to spread the Faith, sent holy Francis Xavier to preach the Gospel in the Indies, and others in other parts of the world, and the war, which he thus proclaimed against paganism and heresy, was waged with such success, that it was the general belief, confirmed by the utterance of the Pope, that even as God had in other times raised up holy men specially to meet the needs of their day, so He had raised up against Luther and the heretics of that age, Ignatius and the Society which he had founded. But the first care of Ignatius was to set forward godliness among Catholics. He was a great promoter of seemliness in the Churches, instruction in the Catechism, and often hearing Sermons and using the Sacraments. He opened schools everywhere to train up boys in godliness and good learning. At Rome he founded the German College, a home for fallen and another for imperilled girls, an orphanage for boys and another for girls, houses for converts under instruction, and other godly institutions. He never wearied in his work of gaining souls for God, and was sometimes heard to say that if he had the choice he would rather live without knowing whether he was to be among the blessed, and meanwhile work for God and the salvation of his neighbours, than know he was going to glory and die forthwith. He exercised an extraordinary power over devils. Holy Philip Neri and others saw heavenly light shining from his face. At last, (on the 31st day of July,) in the year of our Redemption 1556 and of his own age the sixty fifth, he passed away to the embrace of that Lord Whose greater glory had been the constant theme of his words and aim of all his works. He is very illustrious in the Church on account of his great deeds and miracles, and Gregory XV. enrolled him in the Kalendar of the Saints. Pius XI, acceding to the wishes of the holy Bishops, established and declared him the heavenly patron of all Spiritual Exercises.