Ignatius Loyola

Ignatius Loyola
In 1491 Ignatius Loyola was born. He was born in Basque Country, the smallest province in
Spain. He was born from a wealthy background, Ignatius family being extremely powerful aristocrats. Ignatius was educated as a knight, which led him to join the army. He was a man who dreamed to be a military legend, extremely wealthy, and have a beautiful wife. One day in war, the Battle of Pamplona, Ignatius is struck in the legs by a cannon ball; shattering his dreams of becoming a brave military legend. This began his conversion to religion. Ignatius was an extremely interesting man, particularly his conversion to religion. When Ignatius was struck in the legs in the war, his men had reset his bone back into place. However, they had done so wrongly. Consequently, Ignatius’s physician had to break Ignatius bone once again; leading him to remain bed-ridden for nine months. While his leg was healing Ignatius was awfully bored. He had asked the nurse for romance novels, however there was none in the castle. The only novels she could find were those of religion. Ignatius had then read about how the saints lived, how Jesus lived. Ignatius then recanted all of his sins and started fantasizing. He fantasized about living like Christ, it made him happy and at peace. The most influential book he had read was The Life of Christ. This led to Ignatius to become a servant of God. Ignatius was Roman Catholic. He absolutely adored the Virgin Mary, and said he had seen Mary holding Christ in her arms in a vision; also something that converted him to Catholicism. From 1522 to 1534 Ignatius had gone back to school. From there he and six friend prayed every day for extended amounts of time and they meditated; after they finished school Ignatius and his six other friends had agreed to take the vow of chastity, obedience to Christ, and poverty (later on adding obedience to the Pope). Ignatius Loyola is most known for being the founder of the Jesuits; a Jesuit is a member of the Society of Jesus. Pope Paul III had agreed to institute the Society of Jesus to rid of Protestants. The Jesuits are missionaries for the Catholic Church; they were a society of the church. The Jesuits were the largest factor in Counter-Reformation. They reformed Protestants, Muslims, and more religions to Catholicism. Jesuits believed that Protestants were going to go to hell because they believed as long as you had faith in God, you would go to heaven. However, Ignatius believed in order to go to heaven we must: pray, do good deeds, find God in everything, and obey him. Overall, Ignatius was an interesting man who found religion after a terrible incident had happened to him. Ignatius eventually died in 1556 due to a fever however, the Jesuits still continued and has continued today because as a matter of fact in 2013 Pope Francis was the first Jesuit pope to be elected.

Works Cited
" Bible Questions Answered. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 June 2013. <http://www.gotquestions.org/Jesuits.html>.
"Brief Biography of St. Ignatius of Loyola." The New Orleans Province of the Society of Jesus. N.p., n.d.
Web. 13 June 2013. <http://norprov.org/spirituality/lifeofignatius.htm>.
"CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Cleric." NEW ADVENT: Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 June 2013.
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04049b
"Ignatius Loyola." History Learning Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 June 2013
<http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Ignatius-Loyola.htm>.

Cited: " Bible Questions Answered. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 June 2013. &lt;http://www.gotquestions.org/Jesuits.html&gt;. "Brief Biography of St. Ignatius of Loyola." The New Orleans Province of the Society of Jesus. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 June 2013. &lt;http://norprov.org/spirituality/lifeofignatius.htm&gt;. "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Cleric." NEW ADVENT: Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 June 2013. &lt;http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04049b "Ignatius Loyola." History Learning Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 June 2013 &lt;http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Ignatius-Loyola.htm&gt;.