Saint Ignatius of Loyola

Today is the memorial of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, founder of Ignatian spirituality, and the only saints so far as I know who had a leg shot off by a cannonball.

Ignatius was minor Basque Spanish nobility, raised to be a soldier. After serving as a page in the household of a relative (who happened to be the treasurer of the Kingdom of Castille), Ignatius joined the army at the age of 17.

He was wounded at the Battle of Pamplona on May 20, 1521 when a French cannonball ricocheted off a wall and tore through his right leg. He was 29 years old.

While recovering from surgery that left him lame – a surgery conducted without the use of anesthetics – he was desperate for reading material to alleviate the boredom of being bedridden, first in Pamplona and later at his family castle in Loyola. 

What he was looking for were accounts of soldiers and chivalry and heroism. What he found was a book of the lives of the Saints. His reading began in him a profound conversion of heart. He turned his life wholly to Christ and discerned a vocation to the religious life.

In Loyola, his sister brought him a copy of Ludolph of Saxony’s Mirror of the Life of Christ, which had a profound impact on his developing spirituality.

When he was sufficiently recovered to be able to walk, he spent some time as a hermit before going on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Upon his return, he attended school in Spain before taking a degree at the University of Paris and being ordained a priest. Shortly thereafter, he and several companions founded the Society of Jesus, dedicated to the propagation of the faith and service to the Pope.

The spot in Pamplona where Saint Ignatius was wounded is now surmounted by a Baroque church – La Basílica de San Ignacio. I visited there in 2013, 2016, and just last year. Each time I visited, Christ was present on the altar in the Eucharist. It is a place of perpetual adoration.

Last year I visited Pamplona on the day of the city’s great annual wine harvest festival, and it was one of the only churches open to the public. This is, I think, a fitting memorial to a man who dedicated his entire life to Christ and into his church.