Renaissance and Reformation Biographies | Ignatius of Loyola Biography

c. 1491
Guipuzcoa, Spain
July 31, 1556
Rome, Italy

Religious leader, founder of Jesuits

"The safest and most suitable form of penance seems to be that which causes pain in the flesh but does not penetrate to the bones, that is, which causes suffering but not sickness."

Ignatius of Loyola in Spiritual Exercises, quoted in The Columbia World of Quotations. [Online] Available http://www.bartleby.com/66/17/47917.html, April 5, 2002.

Ignatius Loyola was the principal founder of the Society of Jesus (known as the Jesuits), a Roman Catholic order for men. Prior to having a spiritual awakening, Ignatius was a vain and worldly young soldier who loved a life of adventure. In 1521, at the Battle of Pamplona in Spain, he suffered serious injuries and, while recuperating, turned his mind to...