The following text was first orally approved by Pope Paul III in 1539. More commonly known as the “Five Chapters,” the document serves the first foundational document of what became the Society of Jesus, stating the key purposes of the proposed religious order. The document was later revised in 1540 (approved in the papal bull […]
Five Chapters (1539) Read More »
Ignatius of Loyola (or Iñigo Lopez de Oñaz y Loyola) wrote at least 7,000 letters during his lifetime. This voluminous correspondence includes his first extant letter, dated in 1518, and the last, dated the day before his death in 1556. The following are just a selection of the letters and instructions taken from Ignatius’s service
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Harvard University Press has published Dispelling the Darkness: A Jesuit’s Quest for the Soul of Tibet, edited and written by Donald S. Lopez, Jr., and Thupten Jinpa. The book focuses on Ippolito Desideri, a Jesuit priest who worked as a missionary in Tibet in the 1720s. Desideri, according to the publisher, undertook an “ambitious
April 2017: New History Account of Ippolito Desideri’s Mission to Tibet Read More »
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Loyola University Chicago hosted a Jesuit Studies Roundtable in advance of the annual Renaissance Society of America conference. Organized by Emanuele Colombo (Depaul University) and Stephen Schloesser (Loyola), the workshop consisted of presentations of current and future scholarly and digital projects. Presenting were: Scott Hendrickson, SJ, on “Continued Research on Juan Eusebio Nieremberg, SJ (1595-1658)”;
March 2017: Jesuit Studies Roundtable at Loyola-Chicago Read More »
Brill has published A Companion to Jesuit Mysticism, edited by Robert Maryks, a collection of thirteen essays on the mystical tradition of the Society of Jesus. According to Brill, this tradition is a “somewhat neglected aspect of Jesuit historiography.” Several key figures in the Jesuit mystical tradition are examined, from Baltasar Álvarez to Louis Lallemant to
March 2017: New Companion to Jesuit Mysticism Read More »
In the following letter, Ignatius writes to Stefano Casanova, an ailing young Jesuit who was teaching in the college at Tivoli. Ignatius instructs Casanova to systematically repress only his sinful sensual cravings, adding, however, that for health’s sake it can sometimes be more meritorious to indulge harmless craving than to mortify them. Whether the young
Ignatius on Repression (1556) Read More »
The 35th General Congregation took place during the first two months of 2008. Its delegates approved six decrees and appointed a new superior general. At a Mass closing the congregation, Adolfo Nicolás remarks to his brethren: “I believe that we are all aware that we have had a great experience. The Word of God, however,
Homily of Father General Adolfo Nicolás Closing General Congregation 35 (2008) Read More »
Nicolás delivered the following homily in Rome’s Church of the Gesù on January 20, 2008. The day before, the 217 members of General Congregation 35 had elected Nicolás, the former provincial of Japan and president of the Conference of Major Superiors of East Asia and Oceania, as their order’s new general. For more from the
Homily of Father General Adolfo Nicolás at the Mass of Thanksgiving (2008) Read More »
In one of his last acts as superior general of the Society of Jesus, Peter-Hans Kolvenbach issued the following brief letter to Pope Benedict XIV. The correspondence was sent in reply to the pontiff’s own letter to the 35th General Congregation, then having recently begun at the Jesuits’ Curia in Rome. For more from the
