Site 8: St Ignatius of Loyola Shrine

Without mortar or cement, the shrine was dry-built from local sandstone as a memorial to the primary founder of the Jesuit Order, Saint Ignatius.  The stone tower, a miniature replica of Ignatius’ home, was built in 1870.

Born Iñigo López de Oñaz y Loyola in 1491, in the Basque country in northern Spain, as the youngest of 13 to a wealthy, noble family.

Employed by Spanish courtesans, Iñigo spent his formative years in diplomatic and military undertakings and was knighted while in service. In his autobiography, he states: “I was a man given to the vanities of the world, whose chief delight consisted in martial exercises, with a great and vain desire to win renown.”

While defending the citadel of Pamplona against the French, Iñigo was hit by a cannonball on May 20th of 1521, sustaining a bad fracture of his right leg and damage to the left. After treatment in Pamplona, he was transported to Loyola with the condition now life-threatening.

This resulted in a long convalescence, during which the only reading material offered by the castle was that on the Saints. After much time and reflection, he resolved to imitate the “holy austerities of the saints” as a means of penance for his many earlier sins.

In 1522, he left the Loyola Castle for Montserrat, then began a pilgrimage of 25 kilometres to Manresa. There, he sought to undergo spiritual trials, living as a beggar, disciplining himself, and spending seven hours or more every day in prayer.

During his studies and pilgrimages, Iñigo met and gathered companions, notable among them the Navarrese, Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta, later known as Saint Francis Xavier, who became Ignatius’ first secretary and one of its greatest missionaries. At their profession, they made vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and because they desired to be missionaries, and go anywhere in the world to serve, they took a fourth vow to the Pope to go wherever he might send them.

In 1539, he and his companions chose to form a permanent union in Rome, and in 1540, under the approval of Pope Paul III, the Society of Jesus was established. Iñigo, now known as Ignatius, was chosen amongst his peers as their General, not in a military understanding of the term, but as the overall leader of the newly-formed group.

At his death in 1556, Ignatius left behind an order of over 1,000 Jesuits in seven countries. He left a significant mark in Rome, founding at one end of the spectrum the House of St Martha, a refuge for women and their daughters, and at the other end, the Roman College, from which the Gregorian University was established, and the German College, a German-speaking seminary for Catholic priests in Rome   He also established a home for young, converted Jews. His indelible mark in history is carried through the legacy of the Jesuits today.