- View of Montmartre - late 15th century
The hills of Montmartre can easily be seen from the streets of Paris and during the 16th century the observer could easily focus on the Benedictine convent (now site of the Sacre Coeur Church) built on the summit and just below it, the chapel of the Martyrs, traditional site of the martyrdom of St. Denis, first Bishop of Paris and for centuries a place of pilgrimage on his feast day.
- Hills of Montmartre - 16th century close-up
Other 16th century maps promptly display the place of the chapel of the martyrs and the Benedictine convent ...... accessible by road through the northern gates of the walled city of Paris surrounded by open fields and wind mills that were used to ground grain into flour.
- Vows at Montmartre - August 15, 1534
The companions of Ignatius after undergoing the Spiritual Exercises and wishing to dedicate themselves to the "way of poverty and the cross," and having been together Sunday after Sunday at the Carthusian monastery, now desired to seal this community of theirs with a sacred vow on the feast of the Assumption, Saturday, August 15, 1534. The seven comrades made their way to the Chapel of the Martyrs ......
...
... where they pronounced after communion their commitment of poverty, chastity and to go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. If this voyage was impossible they had already agreed their plan was to place themselves at the disposal of the Holy Father in Rome.
- Vows of Montmartre - Stained Glass Version
This date of August 15, 1534 is a central event in the history of Ignatius and the group of companions that live on with his name and has been commemorated in many artistic forms observed here. Peter Favre, at this time, was the only priest having been ordained at the Notre Dame cathedral chapel that spring.
- Vows of Montmartre - Santa Casa Version
Besides Ignatius the other companions, now known to history, were Francis Xavier, Peter Favre, Nicolás Bobadilla, Diego Laynez, Simón Rodríguez and Alphonso Salmerón. Seven in all.
- Vows of Montmartre - Version of Carlos de Tejada
In a mystical sense, Montmartre expresses at one and the same time an inner pilgrimage of the heart, an apostolic availability to be called and to be admitted, of self-giving and self-surrender and to allow the Lord of the vineyard to change one's plan in the service of God's greater glory, wherever that might be accomplished.
- Ten Companions: With Broet, Cordure and LeJay
This vow ceremony at Montmartre was repeated the following two years on August 15 and added-three other persons to the group. One was Paschase Broet, already a priest of ten years at Amiens, who was in Paris at the university for more education in theology. Two other gentlemen, both friends of Peter Favre joined the group, Jean Codure and Claude LeJay who was already an ordained priest. All three had experienced undergoing the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius, and made their commitment. With them was completed the number of the ten who, including Ignatius who eventually will found the Society of Jesus.
- College of the Sorbonne
Ignatius had applied to the College of Sorbonne where the doctoral programs in theology had some of Europe's most distinguished scholars, but Ignatius application was not accepted because of his age (he was now 44) and his precarious health. The doctors had recommended "his native air."
- The Auto da Fe, Paris
In the final year of Ignatius' stay in Paris the political and religious atmosphere was changing. The Protestants, who had seen their numbers increase in France, desired to make a show of strength. In October 1534, a great number of posters appeared, attached to the walls of the houses of Paris, and displaying words depreciatory of the sacrifice of the Mass. The entire city was in commotion and a vigorous reaction followed. On January 21, 1535, a procession of atonement was organized that moved through the streets of Paris to the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The King himself, Francis I, participated in this campaign and pronounced a discourse against heretics in the presence of the clergy, the university parliament and the ambassadors. Severe repression ensued.
- Inquisition and another inquiry
Near the time of his departure from Paris, Ignatius learned of rumors spreading against him. Even though he had not received a summons, he went on his own accord to the inquisitor, the Dominican Valentin Lievin (March 1535) and asked him to pronounce sentence in the case. The inquisitor indeed verified complaints against him and asked to see the Exercises (now in some written form). After examining them, the inquisitor praised them and asked for a copy. Not satisfied with just an oral approbation, Ignatius returned with a notary and three witnesses and the matter was considered closed.
- Map of France and Spain
The companions of Ignatius purchased a small horse for him on his return trip to Loyola ......
... in Spain during April 1535. They all had agreed to meet together again within two years at Venice ...
... , where they would await departure to the Holy Land. Those remaining in Paris were to finish their studies. Besides the companions, Ignatius left many other friends and associates including professors, students and religious who had been touched by his virtuous life, some of which we will see later in the development of the Society of Jesus, the counter-reformation and the missionaries being sent out to Asia and the New World. (Ignatius of Loyola by James Broderick lists numerous prominent figures, chap.ix,x).
- House of Loyola, the return
Upon return to his native country, Ignatius desired in the first place to make amends in Azpeitia for the scandals of his youth, to clear himself of the association with the Inquisition and to visit the families of the companions along the way. Despite an invitation from his brother to stay at the House of Loyola, he preferred instead lodging at the hospice La Magdalena ...... where he undertook works of moral and social improvement, begging from door to door and distributing alms to the poor even convincing the town council of a program to regularly assist people in need.
- Ignatius teaching catechism in Azpeitia
He gathered children for catechism; he had a genius for teaching this in his native Basque, immortalized here by a tile plaque on the shrine of La Magdalena. Seen behind the children, a ring of adults gathered to hear Ignatius.
- Ignatius preaching to the citizens of Azpeitia
He decided to preach to anyone who would listen. Actually considerable crowds came to hear him, even from nearby villages. Once he even ascended the pulpit of his parish church to speak of the trinity and to attack the corrupt manners of the clergy in a speaking manner said the congregation "like a bishop."
- City of Madrid
After settling with his brother over the inheritance, it came time for Ignatius to start traveling again toward his ultimate goal of Venice and the Holy Land. On the way he stopped to see a brother of Francis Xavier with a letter from Francis, then to visit the family of Diego Laynez in Almazan and then to Toledo to see the family of Alonso Salmerón and finally to Madrid to seek out an old lady friend, from the days of his youth at the court with Charles V.
- Palace at Madrid
The lady, Leonora Mascarenas ...... , originally from Portugal, was now lodging at the Palace in Madrid and much to the surprise of Ignatius she was now governess to the young Prince Philip of Spain (eventually King Philip II his mother was Portuguese) who was now about eight years old.
- Young Prince Philip II
Although a brief moment in the life of Ignatius, Philip, as the later ...... , King Philip II, remembered this childhood experience ...
... which rendered himself benevolent to the Society of Jesus in its future requests for establishing schools and sending missionaries into that vast Spanish empire ...
... which will include Spain, Portugal, Flanders, Naples, Sicily, parts of north Africa, central and south America and the Philippines.
- Segorbe, Spain
Besides Madrid, where Ignatius contacted old friends, he went to the Carthusian monastery at Valle de Christo near Segorbe, Spain, where Juan de Castro, former classmate from Paris, was now a monk and who later became a prior of a nearby monastery. From the port of nearby Valencia Ignatius embarked for Genoa and then traveled through the northern towns of Italy to Venice.
- Venice - Church of Sts. John and Paul
Ignatius spent the whole year of 1536 in Venice. His health gave him no trouble; he stayed with a prior of the Trinita monastery, Andrea Lippomono. When the rest of the companions arrived ...... in the spring of 1537, it was decided to work in two hospitals ...
... that of Sts.John and Paul (behind the church) and that of the Incurables and await the coming of Easter week, the time to ask permission from the Pope to go to the Holy Land.
- Companions in Rome
Ignatius stayed in Venice while the others departed for the city of Rome. When they arrived, they were welcomed and assisted by Pedro Ortiz (formerly of the Sorbonne who had known Ignatius and now working on the annulment of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragón as ambassador of Charles V). Pope Paul III granted them their request to go to the Holy Land and permission for them to become ordained. He also gave them 33 gold escudos for their pilgrimage and asked the papal assistants to contribute. Pedro Ortiz invited them to the Castle San Angelo to engage in an intellectual discussion to demonstrate their university style of disputation which much impressed the Pope who seemed to enjoy this kind of event. Later the companions returned to Venice elated over their success.
- Turks at War
The feast of Corpus Christi came again when the usual pilgrim ceremonies for departure to the Holy Land took place, however, in 1537 for the first time in 38 years, no ships were departing as Venice was on the verge of war with Suleyman ...... the Magnificent, leader of the Turks, and who was also threatening Italy and Spain. So the companions had to postpone the decision of going to the Holy Land indefinitely. To make themselves more effective in their apostolic works they decided to go ahead with their ordination to the priesthood.
- Ignatius and companions ordained to the priesthood
On June 24, 1537, Ignatius and the companions (those not already priests) were ordained by Vincenzo Nigusante, Bishop of Arbe (Dalmatian coast) who was visiting Venice at the time and performed the ceremony in a private chapel (place unknown). (Jean Codure waited one year later). Before saying their first masses, they would begin street preaching for three months by going out to the nearby towns ...... of Vicenza (where Ignatius went) Padua, Bologna, Ferrara and Verona.
- Chapel of La Storta
On September 13, 1537, the Doge of Venice Andrea Gritti joined the Pope and King Charles V of Spain in opposing the Turks. Ignatius summoned all the companions to Vicenza (monastery of St. Pietro, Vivarola) to discuss the new situation. Ignatius' desire to go to the Holy Land to have his first mass at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem was now out of the question. The decision was made that Ignatius, Peter Favre and Diego Laynez would go to Rome ...... and approach the Pope as to their future. Approaching the city of Rome (about 10 miles out) Ignatius stepped into half-ruined chapel at La Storta to pray and was overcome by illuminations and consolation that God would be propitius to him in Rome (Ego ero vobis Romae propitius).
- Ignatius and the vision of La Storta
This vision was for Ignatius a seal from heaven of his decision to come to Rome and the supreme fulfillment of his prayer "to be enlisted under Christ our Saviour" (a profound Ignatian mysticism of the Spiritual Exercises). Years later Ignatius recorded this vision of La Storta in his notebooks, holding fast to the Holy Name by which he wanted at that time his group of companions to be called the "Society of Jesus."
- University of Rome (La Sapienza)
Pedro Ortiz welcomed the group in Rome. He got Diego Laynez and Peter Favre jobs teaching at the University of Rome (La Sapienza), as Ignatius worked tirelessly giving the spiritual exercises. Meanwhile the companions had continued to work in northern Italy, but with the war continuing, Ignatius finally summoned them all to come to Rome.
- Pope Paul III
Ignatius approached Paul III to place himself and the others in fullest obedience at the Pope's disposition. The money they had taken originally for their journey to the Holy Land was returned to the benefactors. The group was invited to the theological disputations before the Pope and other observers when the Pope, in an informal setting mentioned: "Why are you so anxious to go to Jerusalem. Italy can be a good and excellent Jerusalem if you wish to reap a harvest in the Church of God." From then on it seemed, the city of Rome took the place of Jerusalem forever.
- House in Rome
The house of Antonio Frangipani, where they lived, became the scene of the charity of Ignatius and his companions, during the most severe winter months of 1538-39. Harvest had been the lowest in 40 years; ships threatened by the Turkish war could not bring extra food supplies from Africa. The city was suffering from hunger, homelessness, refugees and unprecedented inflation. The companions turned this occasion into an opportunity of unprecedented efforts to gather food, clothing, blankets, firewood and to provide shelter. The numbers needing assistance were so large that the companions even took charge of the hospices to help the needy. The number of those helped eventually rose to over three thousand in a city of 40,000 citizens.
- Ignatius directs the spiritual works of the companions
Besides these corporal works of mercy the companions devoted themselves to catechizing, preaching the word, administering the sacraments, hearing confessions and giving the Spiritual Exercises, despite the limitations of the language.
- Pedro Ortiz and Ignatius at Montecasino Abbey
Pedro Ortiz, the distinguished theologian from the Sorbonne and ambassador for Charles V, asked to undergo the Spiritual Exercises with Ignatius and the two of them went off to the famous Benedictine Abbey of Montecasino. In the course of the many days they had together Dr. Ortiz expressed the need in the Church for people such as the companions to assist the reform of the Church and to evangelize the territories opening up in the Far East and the New World, suggesting the possibility of a new religious order, but Ignatius hinted that the papal advisors would be against it.
- Rome of the 1540's - Old St. Peter's (upper right)
In response to this attitude, Pedro Ortiz, on returning to Rome ...... , said he could get his friends to make such recommendations to the Pope. His friends were Charles V ...
... , Francis I of France ...
... , John III of Portugal ...
... . He also approached the Grand Duke of Ferrara, Countess Santa Fora, niece of the Pope, Cardinal Ferreri papal legate in Bologna and Archbishop Bandino of Siena. The people of Rome were calling these extraordinary men reformed priests - religious of a novel type. With so much demand for their services a decisive moment was facing the companions: Ought they found a new religious order? After discernment of all ten, their minds were made up: "We desire to remain permanently an order and to take a vow of obedience to a superior whom we shall choose in order to fulfill our vow to the Pope..." The proposed new order would have no special dress, or penitential practices, nor the required singing of the Divine Office, and be known as the Society of Jesus (Compagnia di Gesú).
- Ignatius missions Francis Xavier to India
But even before the new religious order could come into existence, an urgent appeal came from King John III of Portugal by way of his ambassador in Rome (Pedro Mascarenhas) that two pairs of these reformed priests be sent to India. Three had already been promised to the Pope for assignments elsewhere so the choice fell to Simón Rodríguez and Nicolás Bobadilla. When Bobadilla became seriously ill, Ignatius asked Francis Xavier to fill in: His response was: "Good enough, I am ready." Ignatius said goodbye to Francis March 15, 1540 as he left for India by way of Portugal.
