Íñigo (Ignatius) López de Loyola was born in the family castle of Loyola in Azpeitia, in the Basque province, Spain, to a noble family in 1491.

In keeping with family tradition, Ignatius became a soldier. He was a great warrior and was looking to make a career out of it, until he was wounded in the leg by a cannonball during a siege of Pampeluna. Ignatius was devasted and had a long road of recovery ahead of him. During his recovery, Ignatius was distraught and didn’t know what he was going to do with his life, if he couldn’t be a solider.

Ignatius picked up a few books while recovering and read the Life of Christ and the lives of the saints. He underwent a remarkable conversion and new found zeal and purpose for life.

By 1522, he was absolutely determined to become a saint, leaving the family castle and embarking on a pilgrimage to the Benedictine monastery of Montserrat. There he confessed his sins, and dressed in sackcloth, and placed his sword on the altar of the Blessed Virgin, to whom he dedicated himself as a knight.

Living for a time in a cave, he developed rapidly in the spiritual life and began work on his masterpiece, the famed Spiritual Exercises. He left Manresa in 1523 and went to Rome and then Jerusalem, where he lived entirely on alms and worked to covert local Muslims. At the urging of the Franciscans, who were quite concerned for Ignatius’ life, he retuned to Barcelona. Deciding that he needed to be better educated in order to aid others properly. Ignatius spent the next eleven years in the study, at Alcala, Salamanca, and Paris. On March 14, 1534, he received a master of arts degree.

During this time, Ignatius gathered around him a group of followers who sought to join him in his spiritual quest.

On August 15, 1534, in the chapel of the Benedictine monastery of Paris, they each took vows of poverty and chastity, with the special hope of missionary pilgrimages to the Holy Land, with particular obedience to the Holy See. This moment witnessed the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits.

They went to Italy and were ordained in 1537, but it was soon clear that a pilgrimage was impossible. They thus presented themselves to the Holy Father and offered their services. Pope Paul III immediately saw their potential and gave oral approval for the order in 1539. Formal approbation came in 1540 through the formula instituted in the bull Regimini Militantis Ecclesiae. Ignatius was elected the first general of the order, receiving the first solemn procession on April 22, 1541.

The rest of his live was devoted to advancing the cause of the society. He drew up the constitution of the order from 1547-1550, founded the Roman College and started the German College in Rome to prepare preists for the effort of recovering German regions that had been lost to Protestantism.

Ignatius was responsible for creating one of the most unique and significant religious orders in the history of the Church. The Jesuits proved a bold, innovative community, which stressed its devotion to the Holy See, brilliantly educated and spiritually developed priests, and showed concern for the missionary endeavors of the faith.

Ignatius was also responsible for the Spiritual Exercises, a profound set of meditations and rules intended to foster spiritual development.

Ignatius died in Rome on July 31, 1556 and is declared the patron of all spiritual exercises.