Ignatius of Loyola

Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556) was the Spanish priest and former soldier who founded the Society of Jesus. Born Íñigo López, youngest of thirteen children of a Basque family, he soldiered until a cannonball broke his right leg at Pamplona in 1521 and lamed him for life.

At Loyola he read the lives of Christ and the saints, finding dreams of sainthood left him at peace but dreams of glory left him empty. In 1522 he hung his sword at Montserrat and went to Manresa, where he begged, prayed in a cave and drafted the Spiritual Exercises, published in 1548.

After studies at Alcalá, Salamanca and Paris he gathered six companions, among them Francis Xavier, and in 1541 became first Superior General of the Society of Jesus, whose fourth vow of papal obedience made it a Counter-Reformation force. He died in Rome in 1556 and was canonized in 1622.