Introduction
This summer in Christian Devotional Classics (Evangelical Seminary), I presented on Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491 – 1556) and the Spiritual Exercises (1522 to 1524). Considering the importance of the Society of Jesus in higher education, future posts are already in concept — if this is a project of interest, please email me.
In the first part of this post is a rough timeline of a Spanish knight who became a mystical “Soldier for Christâ€Â pioneering an educational, missional, and spiritual Counter-Reformation. In the second part one finds a week of reflections on “What Saint Ignatius of Loyola and the Spiritual Exercises have to say to us today.”
Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491 – 1556)
Biography: Before Christ
• Ãñigo Oñaz López de Loyola was a Spanish knight from a Basque noble family
• “Love of martial exercises and a vainglorious desire for fame.â€
• Desired to be like El Cid, the knights of Camelot . . .
•BUT
• Faced financial & educational challenges
• Suffered a leg wound (& lamed) by a French cannonball in the Battle of Pampeluna (1521).
• Medical care was little more than convalescence (1521).
•BUT read the saints while recovering!
• Ludolf of Saxony’s Life of Christ
• James of Vorgine’s Golden Legend [Read more…] about Christian Devotional Classics: Ignatius of Loyola