Saint Ignatius of Loyola: A Convert's Story

By Pat Corkery

Change is an essential part of life. How we meet that change is where it can get interesting. When a person goes through a conversion experience, there is an automatic assumption that they have it all figured out immediately, and they know exactly what God wants them to do. This is not the case. We only have to look at St. Paul. While his conversion was dramatic, Paul tells us in his letters that he had to spend considerable time in the wilderness pondering what had happened to him, and figuring out what exactly God wanted him to do. The same is true of St. Ignatius of Loyola. 

 

St. Ignatius had a dramatic conversion which shattered not only his leg but all his previous dreams and aspirations. Such a change was not easy to get his head around, and he was forced to enter into his own period in the wilderness. This time of reflection not only brought him closer to God, but it also gave him a greater insight into himself. In this booklet, you will be able to witness the transformation which took place in the life of Ignatius from a vainglorious young man obsessed with his own success, to one who put the service of God and other people before anything else.

 

This transformation, while dramatic, was not immediate. It took time and reflection and took him across various locations. In all of his travels, Ignatius was focused on one thing, what was God calling him to do? Ignatius conversion will allow the reader to get a perspective on how Ignatius faced the challenges which transformed his life, and hopefully, the reader may be able to make time in their own life to explore things which brought about changes in their life and see how God was operating within this change.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Messenger Publications
• Release date: Jun 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9781788123310

Book preview

Introduction

When the canonisation of Ignatius was being considered, a Roman beggar was consulted. It’s unlikely that he was popular with the great and good of Roman society, but the beggar was someone Ignatius has made an impression on. He described Ignatius as ‘the small Spaniard with a limp who smiled a lot’. I think St Ignatius is often obscured by the image of the ‘soldier saint’. While this image has merit, it misses the warmth that was very much part of Ignatius’s life and character.

On the 500th anniversary of his ‘accident’ at Pamplona, perhaps now is an appropriate time to revisit Ignatius’s life and to reimagine him through the eyes of the Roman beggar. In this booklet, I hope to show you that other ‘smiling’ side to Ignatius. It is a side that many readers may not know.

This booklet is not meant to be a definitive life of St Ignatius. I will only cover a few years of his life, from his conversion in 1521 to his commencing studies in Paris in 1528. I hope to give you a glimpse into Ignatius’s life and encourage greater interest in the subject. I am convinced that everyone has something they can learn from Ignatius!

Fr Arturo Sosa, the current Superior General of the Jesuits, has written to Jesuits all over the world in anticipation of this anniversary saying: ‘In 1521, while Ignatius was convalescing at his family home in Loyola from the wound that damaged his leg at the Battle of Pamplona, God brought about his conversion and put him on the road that led to Manresa. Together with our friends and the whole Church, the universal Society wants to remember that privileged moment when the Holy Spirit inspired Ignatius of Loyola in his decision to follow Christ, and to deepen our understanding of this pilgrim way in order to draw fruit from it.’

I hope that by reading this booklet, you may ‘draw fruit’ from Ignatius’s life and grow closer to God. For Ignatius, closeness to God was at the core of his being. It motivated every aspect of his life. Perhaps the right place to begin is with a prayer composed by Ignatius, which outlines God’s centrality for him. I hope that you will find this prayer, which is taken from the Spiritual Exercises, helpful in your reflections throughout this booklet.

The Suscipe

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,

my memory, my understanding,

and my entire will,

All I have and call my own.

You have given all to me.

To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours; do with it what you will.

Give me only your love and your grace,

that is enough for me.

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Ignatius’s World (1491–1521)

Historians tend to agree that Ignatius was born in 1491 in the Basque region of Spain, the year before Columbus made his voyage to the Americas. The European arrival in the Americas was an earthshattering event. It was the dawn of a new age in Europe. New artistic techniques and the ‘rediscovery’ of classical Rome and Greece were sparking the emergence of what is now called the Renaissance. In many ways, these changes were in marked contrast to the world Ignatius grew up in, which owed more to the Middle Ages than what was happening elsewhere in Europe.

Ignatius’s world was that of the court, with kings, princesses and chivalry. Even the religious debates that shattered the unity of the Western Church were not part of Ignatius’s early life. The Catholic monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand embarked on a series of reforms within the Spanish Church, many of which would later be adopted by the Council of Trent (1545–63). Their reforms influenced what would come to be called the Counter-Reformation. It is worth