In 1543, Pierre Favre provided the following instructions to two Spanish royal chaplains who had joined the Society of Jesus the year before. Favre had sent the new Jesuits on pilgrimage as part of their formation. The following instructions reveal much about how and why Jesuits conducted pilgrimages just three years into their order’s existence. […]
“Instructions for Those Going on Pilgrimage,” Pierre Favre (1543) Read More »
The most recent of the Archivum historicum Societatis Iesu, the biannual peer reviewed journal published at the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu, includes a revised version of Paul Grendler’s 2018 Feore Lecture on Jesuit Studies. At that lecture, Grendler received the George E. Ganss, S.J., Award in Jesuit Studies to note his significant contributions to the
May 2019: Grendler’s Feore Lecture Published in the Archivum Read More »
Jesuit Sources announces a discounted bundle of 6 books on the early Jesuits. The collection includes the writings of Ignatius, Xavier, Farve and others. Supplies are limited. The 6 books are offered for only $50, plus shipping–a savings for nearly 70%. Titles, all in paperback, include: A Brief and Exact Account: The
August 2018: Books on the Early Jesuits Available on Discount Read More »
In 1540, Francis Xavier joined Simão Rodrigues in accepting the offer of the Portuguese king to serve as a missionary in Asia. Xavier took the place of Nicolás Alonso de Bobadilla, the man originally selected to travel with the Portuguese ambassador to Portugal. On March 15, before leaving Rome, Xavier wrote and signed the following
Three Documents on Departure for India, Francis Xavier (1540) Read More »
Paschase Broët was born into a wealthy family in Northern France in roughly 1500. He traveled to Paris in 1532 to begin his university studies, where he met Ignatius of Loyola, Jean Codure, Pierre Favre, Claude Jay, Simão Rodrigues, and Francis Xavier. These seven men made the same vows together in a Montmartre church in
On the Difficulties of Early Missionary Work, Paschase Broët (1545) Read More »
Simão Rodrigues, one of Ignatius’s first companions in founding the Society of Jesus, became the founding provincial of the Portuguese province in 1546. In Coimbra, Portugal, his fellow Jesuits opposed Rodrigues’s unique training methods for Jesuit scholastics. Men like Francisco Estrada and others objected to the policy that scholastics had to reproduce the saints’ humiliating
“Fools for Christ,” Simão Rodrigues (1547) Read More »
Five months after Ignatius’s death on July 31, 1556, Jerómino Nadal gave two talks to Jesuit scholastics in the Collegio Romano. The talks came at the request of Diego Laínez, who served as the vicar general of the Society of Jesus following the death of Ignatius. Nadal explains, in the following excerpts, to the men
“Ignatius as the Pattern of Jesuit Life,” Jerómino Nadal (1557) Read More »
The 1979 General Assembly of the National Federations of Christian Life Communities took place in outside of Rome, organized on the theme of “Towards a World Community at Service of One World.” Pedro Arrupe, as superior general of the Society of Jesus, addressed the group, largely of laymen, which took its inspiration from the Jesuits’
“A World Community,” Pedro Arrupe (1979) Read More »
The Ignatian Center for Spirituality in Rome closed a five-week conference on Ignatian Spirituality on February 18, 1978, with Pedro Arrupe delivering the following remarks. The Superior General of the Society of Jesus based his remarks on a phrase from the Jesuits’ Formula, approved by Pope Julius III in 1550. For Arrupe, the phrase “To
“Ecclesial Service,” Pedro Arrupe (1978) Read More »
“The founding of the Society of Jesus,” Jesuit historian Joseph Conwell has argued, “begins with a discernment process.” The fruits of that process of discernment appear in the following document, Cum ex plurim, written by Ignatius and his companions in 1539. The document articulates the founders’ vision for what became the Jesuit order. Indeed, five
Cum Ex Plurium (1539) Read More »
