Jesuit Heritage

Looking to the Past:
Ignatius and the Roots of Jesuit Education

Ignatius' story is a timely one, for it is set in early modern Europe, an era as dynamic and full of possibility as our own. He was born in the Basque region of Spain in 1491, the youngest son of a minor nobleman. Though raised Catholic, Ignatius hardly had the youth expected of a saint. He sought power, privilege, and prestige through the exercise of arms and the ways of a courtier. While defending a castle against a French onslaught, he was struck by a cannonball. It shattered his leg and his dreams of glory. Bedridden for several months at his family's castle, he became desperate for diversion. Out of boredom he turned to the only books available in the castle's limited library: lives of Christ and the saints. At first he found these works dull and uninspiring compared to the tales of chivalry that he formerly loved to read. But he ultimately began to imagine fashioning his life after the saints, and such daydreams awakened in him a deep desire to serve God. By paying attention to his inner experience, he gradually discerned that God was calling him and that this call gave him a sense of peace or "consolation." This process of discovering God's will for him by attending to his deepest thoughts and feelings became a hallmark of his "way of proceeding" throughout his life and a model of what he would teach others.1

In the years after his recovery, Ignatius' conversion continued. His newfound desires moved him to leave behind his sword and his castle. He traveled widely - begging, preaching, and caring for the poor and sick. Along the way, he recorded his spiritual insights and methods of prayer in a manual, Spiritual Exercises. This handbook provides the paradigm for retreats that Jesuits and many others continue to make even today. During this phase of Ignatius' deepening conversion, he recognized his lack of formal training in the humanities, philosophy, and theology, so Ignatius became a peripetetic scholar. While finishing his studies at the University of Paris, Ignatius' experience of God and his boundless spirit captivated other students. Soon, in a chapel outside Paris, Ignatius and six other men professed religious vows of poverty and chastity to bind themselves more closely together in their dedication to God and "the help of souls" (later they would also take a vow of obedience).2 These companions, who called themselves "friends in the Lord," would eventually become the first Jesuits, officially known as the Society of Jesus (hence the S.J. behind Jesuits' last names).

While Ignatius never originally intended for Jesuits to open schools, he soon discovered how greatly people's lives could be improved by an education rooted both in gospel values and the humanistic revival of the Renaissance. As one early Jesuit put it, "all the well-being of Christianity and of the whole world depends on the proper education of youth."3 The Jesuits quickly built a reputation as teachers and scholars. Students from all over Europe flocked to the burgeoning Jesuit schools, and Jesuit missionaries opened schools where none existed before. Even prior to the establishment of Georgetown, Jesuits were operating more than 800 universities, seminaries, and especially secondary schools almost around the globe.

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