Feast day · July 31
St. Ignatius of Loyola
Priest, Founder of the Society of Jesus
Born 1491, Loyola, SpainDied 1556, Rome
“Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will.”
A wounded soldier who read the lives of the saints in bed and founded the Jesuits.
The story
A cannonball shattered Ignatius's leg at Pamplona in 1521. Recovering, he found only a Life of Christ and a book of saints to read, and noticed that worldly daydreams left him empty while thoughts of imitating the saints left him at peace. That observation became the Spiritual Exercises. He studied at Paris, gathered companions including Francis Xavier, and founded a society "to help souls" that sent missionaries to the ends of the earth.
What Ignatius teaches
Notice what your desires do to your soul. Discernment of spirits is a skill anyone can learn.
Patronage
retreats, soldiers, the Jesuits.
Prayer
St. Ignatius, teach us to find God in all things and to do everything for His greater glory. Amen.
Want to go deeper on St. Ignatius of Loyola? Ask AskCatholic