William IV, duke of Bavaria, appealed to Pope Paul III and to Ignatius to send several Jesuits as professors of theology to the University of Ingolstadt, an institution that had fallen into severe decline. Alfonso Salmerón, Claude Jay, and Pierre Canisius were chosen for the task. For them, Ignatius writes the following instruction, urging them […]
Ignatius on Mission (1549) Read More »
In the following letter, Ignatius enjoins that greater order and care be used when Jesuits write to him. Their regular letters, Ignatius explains, might be shown to the Society’s friends and benefactors. Recently, Ignatius wished to show some of the letters to “a couple of cardinals,” whom Ignatius believed could help the situations raised in
Ignatius on Writing (1542) Read More »
The following text is the “Formula of the Institute” composed by St. Ignatius and his first companions in 1539 as a kind of charter or mission statement for the new Society of Jesus. It was inserted with minor revisions into the 1540 bull Regimini militantis Ecclesiae, in which Pope Paul III formally approved the foundation
Formula the Institute (1540) Read More »
Just before Easter in the spring of 1539, Ignatius and his companions gathered to determine whether or not they should continue to informally collaborate with one another, as they had for some five years. Their deliberations took the form of group discernment, consisting of several days of prayer and discussions. Jean Codure or Pierre Favre later
The Deliberations of Our First Fathers (1539) Read More »
This document, a chapter from the Part IX of the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, articulates the desired qualities in the Jesuits’ superior general. Though the Constitutions were not approved until the first General Congregation of 1558, the first Jesuits elected Ignatius as their superior general in April 1541. Ignatius collaborated with Juan Alfonso
The Kind of Person the Superior General Ought to Be (1558) Read More »
The Society of Jesus—much like “all well-organized communities or congregations”—appoints a person “whose proper duty,” according to the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, “is to attend to the universal good.” For the Jesuits in particular, the superior general’s “duty is the good government, preservation, and growth of the whole body of the Society.” (Rather
Brill has published Jesuit Image Theory, edited by Wietse de Boer, Karl A.E. Enenkel and Walter S. Melion. The volume (including 97 color images) looks at “Jesuit investment in images, whether verbal or visual, virtual or actual, pictorial or poetic, rhetorical or exegetical.” Contributions to the volume include: The Jesuit Engagement with the Status and Functions
June 2016: Published Volume on Jesuit Imagery Read More »
John O’Malley’s Art, Controversy, and the Jesuits: The Imago Primi Saeculi, available through St. Joseph’s University Press. The Imago primi saeculi Societatis Iesu, a 952 folio-sized volume of poetry, prose with 127 exquisite copperplate engravings, celebrated the Society’s centenary in 1640. The publisher calls O’Malley’s text, “the most comprehensive study of the important book ever to
July 2015: New Book on Imago primi saeculi Societatis Iesui, by John O’Malley Read More »
