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Ignatius of Loyola
 Life
Conversion
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Ignatius of Loyola
Conversion
 Seriously
wounded in battle Ignatius is treated medically for a short time in Pamplona,
and later he is taken to family castle at Loyola in June 1521. During
the period of his convalescence at Loyola he decides for vanity's sake
to submit to a painful surgery in order to correct the rudimentary
medical assistance that had been given to his wounded leg after the
battle of Pamplona. The result was a long convalescence. Ignatius asks
for chivalrous books in oder to pass the time. In the castle were found
only two books: "Vita Christi" (picture)
by Rudolf of Saxony, and the "Life of Saints", a version that
contained short accounts of many stories of th saints. This edition written
by a Cistercian monk considered the service of God as a sacred noble
order. While he read the books, he passed the time also remembering war
stories and he thoughts of a great lady whom he admired. He began reading
without discrimination in order to kill the time. He discovered by surprise,
that he enjoyed it. In the first stages of reading his attention was
focused on the heroic testimony of the saints. Ignatius was deeply attracted
to that vision of the life. After a great deal of reflection he decided
to imitate the saints' austere lifestyle and he began to contemplate: "What
if I should do what St. Francis did, and what St. Dominic did?" Little
by little Ignatius began to find his spiritual freedom and an interior
change that all in the house noticed. Thinking about what happened within
his interior life Ignatius took account of his thoughts about God and
the saints and the way that they touched his heart. On reflection later
on they left him happy and with a great deal of peace. On the other hand
vanities of the world were facile, but later on they left him cold and
unhappy. Ignatius began to experience the meaning of "spiritual discernment",
that is, to know to distinguish the action of God within him and the
influence of the evil and one's own human weakness.
The Pilgrim
Already totally recovered in February of 1522 Ignatius said goodbye
to his family and left for Monserrat, a Benedictine monastery close
to Barcelona in the northeast of Spain, He was a pilgrim there and
makes a general confession of the sins of all his entire life. He leaves
his sword and dagger there at the altar of the Virgin Mary. This symbolized
his renouncement of his former life. Then he dressed only in very coarse
clothes and in sack cloth as was the manner for penitent pilgrims.
He passed in prayer the night of March 24 in a "vigil of arms".
 At
dawn he left for Manresa to a cave nearby Barcelona. In Manresa Ignatius
wrote down the feelings that he experienced during his prayers and
those reflections became the basis of his small book entitled the Spiritual
Exercises (picture). The stay in Manresa was marked by spiritual judgements
and tests that Ignatius imposed upon himself, as well as consolation
and interior illumination. Ignatius felt that in his attempt to follow
God that God treated him as a teacher treats his student: God taught
him to serve him as he wanted.
Ignatius, the pilgrim, surrenders to God,
willing to follow God's inspirations at every moment. Ignatius doesn't
know where these things will take him but knows that it is not right
that he asks for any other thing, he will go to Jerusalem. He even
dreamt of dying there, like Christ, announcing to non-believers the
Gospel.
Spiritual Illumination
 In
the cave in the which Ignatius meditated and prayed on the banks of
the Cardoner river, close Manresa, in September of 1522 Ignatius experienced
his mystical early Church, as he named it. On a certain day, while
he was seating on the embankments of the Cardoner river, according to
the report in his autobiography "the eyes of his understanding began to be
opened, not that he saw any vision, but he understood and learnt many
things, both spiritual matters and matters of faith." Everything seemed
to him new and different, as if he was seeing things for the first
time. Under this light he continued to write the Spiritual Exercises.
The result of that decisive period was the resolution
of making pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Ignatius of Loyola left Barcelona
on March 1523 and went to Rome, Venice and then Cyprus. He finally
reached Jerusalem on September 4. He would like to have remained there
permanently, but the Franciscan superior who guarded the shrines of
the Latin Church would not allow Ignatius to stay there. After visiting
Bethany, Mount of the Olives, Bethlehem, the River Jordan, Mount Calvary,
and all the sacred sites designated for pilgrims. Ignatius left Palestine
on October 3, returning via Cyprus and Venice and he arrived in Barcelona
in March 1524..
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