Íñigo López de Loyola was born in 1491 at the castle of Loyola in the Basque country and grew up a courtier and soldier. In 1521 a cannonball shattered his leg at the siege of Pamplona. During a long convalescence, with no romances to hand, he read a life of Christ and lives of the saints, and noticed that thoughts of serving God left him at peace while worldly daydreams left him dry and restless.
He hung up his sword at Montserrat and spent most of a year at Manresa in prayer and penance, where he drafted the Spiritual Exercises. After a pilgrimage to Jerusalem he studied at Barcelona, Alcalá, Salamanca and Paris, and was twice held and examined by church authorities. In Paris he gathered companions, among them Francis Xavier and Peter Faber, who took vows together at Montmartre in 1534.
Ignatius of Loyola in the library (3 works)
- Ejercicios espirituales — 1548; edición de 1833 · en español
El texto castellano de los Ejercicios de san Ignacio: las cuatro semanas de meditación y contemplación. - Ignatius of Loyola: The Spiritual Exercises — 1548; translation 1914
The four weeks of meditation and contemplation that formed the Jesuits and countless retreats since. - The Autobiography of St Ignatius — 1553–1555; translation 1900
Ignatius's own account, dictated late in life, of his conversion at Loyola, Manresa, his pilgrimage and the founding years.