Search Results for: Ferrer

Nicholas Floris (Goudanus) was a zealous apostolic Jesuit from Gouda in the Low Countries. To Rome, Floris lamented his spiritual dryness, specifically how he lacked the gift of tears. Juan Alfonso de Polanco, writing on behalf of Ignatius, relays to Floris the superior general’s assurance that sensible consolations are not essential to Christian holiness. “Keep […]

Hannibal Coudret was one of the early Jesuits sent to the college at Messina, the first to be founded explicitly and primarily for the education of lay students by members of the Society of Jesus. In many ways, it became a model for later Jesuit schools. Some of the humanistic-classical texts adopted for study in

Peter Canisius was one among the many Jesuits whom Ignatius sent to Germany. He asked Ignatius to order the entire Society to offer special prayers to remedy and aid that country. Ignatius replied with this letter to the Society, though he added “England…and the northern nations” to the petition, indicating the places that were “imperiled

After the Spiritual Exercises, perhaps until the publication and translation of his “autobiography,” the writings of Ignatius were perhaps best known for this letter, commonly known as the “Letter on Obedience” to the Province of Portugal. Generations of Jesuits heard it read at table once a month in their refectories. Ignatius writes here during a

Filippo Leerno had been named rector at Modena in 1553. Shortly after his appointment to the northern Italian city, Leerno feared that that some of the young Jesuits in his charge did not want to change for the better while others lacked in obedience. The situation was enough for Leerno to conclude that he was

King John III of Portugal requested that Diego Miró and Luis Gonçalves da Câmara serve as confessors for himself and his family. The two Jesuits firmly declined, considering such lofty posts to be incompatible with the Society’s prohibition against personal ambition. The men were also aware of the delicacy of the situation. Ignatius had recently

Appointed treasurer of the college at Coimbra, the austere Manoel Godinho (who had complained about the governing style of Simão Rodrigues) found his involvement in finances and lawsuits to be incompatible with the spiritual life. He appealed to Ignatius and received from him the following reply. Even “temporal business,” Ignatius notes, can be “spiritual and

Ignatius in the letter here offers warm encouragement to Jesuits who are suffering the effects of poverty. Such poverty often arose when benefactors who founded colleges for the Society did not fulfill their obligations or promises to support them. Regardless, Ignatius acknowledges that poverty can be a grace, as it lets “us have a real

This instruction that Ignatius offered to those Jesuits sent on missionary work contains extracts of Part VII of the Constitutions. At the time, the Constitutions were not yet fully promulgated throughout the Society (that would wait until 1558, two years after the death of Ignatius). The instructions by Ignatius here are divided into three sections:

In 1552, the Portuguese province experienced a breakdown of obedience in its members, arising, in part, because the previous provincial (Simão Rodrigues) was unable or unwilling to take the necessary corrective measures. To solve the problem of disobedience, Ignatius wrote the following letter asking that Diego Miró, the new provincial, dismiss from the Society those