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The Father Speaks
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 ST. INIGO DE LOYOLA
- By Rev. Fr. Siegfried
Binzler, SJ
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The
Jesuits celebrate, every
year on the 31st of July, the death of St. Ignatius of Loyola with an
ordination of young Jesuits. We do not know the exact date of St.
Ignatius’ birthday. It must have been in the year 1491. But the date of
his death is
July
31, 1556. My own ordination had been on the 31st of
July in the year 1966 in Yogyakarta, together with seven other young
Jesuits.
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Who
exactly is St. Ignatius? He is the youngest of 12 brothers. His family
belonged to the Basque noblesse, in the north of Spain. In his youth,
St. Ignatius wished to make his career as a soldier in the army. At
that time, there were frequent skirmishes between France and Spain. Both
tried to take a share of the Basque country. In one of these skirmishes,
when the Basques defended the fortress at Pamplona against the French -
Ignatius was then a captain – a cannonball hit him and smashed one of
his legs. The French treated him well. They took him to the castle that
belonged to one of his brothers.
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There his life changed completely. His brother had no novels and cheap
love stories in the small library of the castle. There was only a Holy
Bible. But Inigo was not interested in it. He never read the Bible
before. Nevertheless, the reading of the life of Jesus changed him. When
he could walk again, he made a pilgrimage to Montserrat, a Benedictine
monastery. He prayed the whole night in front of the statue of Our Lady.
And there nearby, he hung up his sword and left it.
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He
then proceeded to become a great man in the history of the Church.
First, he stayed in one of the caves outside of Manresa, fasting and
praying, without regard to his appearance. During this period, he wrote
the Ignatian Retreat, the “Exercitia Spiritualia”. But then, he
realized that he had to live decently, if he wished to give ‘retreats’.
So, he went to school in his thirties in order to get some learning. He
succeeded to finish primary school; and later, he went to Paris to the
University. There he made friends with seven other students who were
attracted by the retreat. Among them was Francis Xavier, who became the
first missionary in India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Japan.
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The
Order of the Jesuits was acknowledged and confirmed by Pope Paul III in
1540. St. Ignatius was chosen to become the first General. In the
following 15 years, this new order grew very fast and had a thousand
members all over the world by the time St. Ignatius died. The Jesuits
became somehow the spearhead of the Church. At one time, during the
eighteenth century, the Jesuits were dissolved, a very tragic decision
for the Church, in fact, a blow to the universal Church. In 1806, the
Ordo had been restored and has now become the most numerous among
all the orders, about 21,000 members in all. Ranking second are the
Franciscans, then followed by the Divine Word.
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The
first Jesuit to come to Indonesia was St. Francis Xavier in 1542. But
only in 1859 were the Jesuits allowed by the Dutch colonialists to enter
Indonesia. In a short time, they reorganized and invited other orders.
Sumatra was assigned to the Capuchins, Flores to the Divine Word and
Celebes to the Holy Family. More and more congregations were invited to
help the growing Indonesian Church. The Jesuits are mainly in Central
Java and in Jakarta. But they are also in Papua, to East Timor, even in
the Philippines, Cambodia and Thailand, among others.
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I
can only invite you to join in the thanksgiving for the wonderful work
the Jesuits had achieved. On the 31st of July, according to an old
tradition, there will be the ordination of two young Jesuits in
Yogyakarta. Let us pray for them that they become good Jesuits as they
are meant to be.
- TELL US LIKE IT IS!
- Has something
wonderful and unique happened in your life lately? Did God answer your
prayer in a very unexpected way? Did you, like Isaiah, meet God’s
whisper?
- Have you felt His
powerful hand working in your life recently?
- Everyday, people are
experiencing God’s mighty Word in their lives and it is a pity that very
few know about it. Do you have a story to tell? Some Good News to
share?
- E-mail us (genesis@catholic.org) or fax us
(021-6627384), and tell us about it. That’s right! You don’t have to be
a great writer to do this. We can help you write it – just tell us like
it is!
- Don’t forget to write
the subject: “Let Me Tell You A
Story”
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