Sunday, 1st June 2014
Ignatius Loyola was a Spanish Knight from a Basque noble family. After being seriously wounded at the Batlle of Pamplona (1521) he underwent a spiritual conversion while undergoing recovery. Inspired by De Vita Christi ( Life of Christ ) by Ludolph of Saxony he abandoned his military life to devote his life to labour for God in the way of Francis of Assissi. He claimed to have experienced a vision of Mary and the Infant Jesus at the shrine of Our Lady of Monserrat in Catalonia ( near Barcelona) he went into a cave near Manresa to hibernate and pray for 7 days and formulated the fundamentals of Sipiritual Exercises. He studied theology at the University of Alcala and later at Paris during the height of the Catholic-Protestant conflict. Ignatius and a few companions ( including Francis Xavier who did missionary work in India, South East Asia and the Far East) vowed a life of poverty, chastity and obedience and formed the Society of Jesus ( Jesuits). He died in 1556 from Malaria in Rome.
This visit took us to the village where he was born and the house he grew up in has now become part of a complex which include a cathedral. Unfortunately the cathedral was only open in the morning on Sundays - so our group was not able to view the inside of the church.
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