Campion-School.com
Title
Campion School Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh,India
Description
(This narration of the life of Ignatius is based on A Pilgrim's Testament, an autobiography dictated to a fellow Jesuit three years before he died. In speaking, Ignatius consistently referred to himself in the third person.)
Ignatius was a minor nobleman, born in 1491 in the family castle of Loyola in the Basque country and brought up as a knight in the courts of Spain. In his autobiography he sums up the first twenty-six years of his life in one sentence: "he was a man given to the follies of the world; and what he enjoyed most was warlike sport, with a great and foolish desire to win fame". The desire to win fame brought Ignatius to Pamploma to aid in the defence of that frontier city against French attack. The defence was hopeless; when, on May 20, 1521, he was hit by a cannon ball which shattered one leg and badly injured the other, Ignatius and the city of Pamplona both fell to the French forces.
French doctors cared for the badly-wounded Ignatius and return him to Loyola, where he spent a long convalescence. In this forced period of inactivity he asked for books to read and, out of boredom, accepted the only ones available - The Lives of the Saints and The Life of Christ. When not reading, the romantic knight dreamed - at times of imitating the deeds of St. Francis and St. Dominic, at times of knightly deeds of valour in service of "a certain lady". After a time, he came to realise that "there was this difference. When he was thinking of those things of the world, he took much delight in them, but afterwards, when he was tired and put them aside, he found himself dry and dissatisfied. but when he thought of ... practising all the rigours tha the saw in the saints, not only was he consoled when he had these thoughts, but even after putting them aside he remained satisfied and joyful ... His eyes were opened a little, and he began to marvel at the difference and to reflect upon it. Little by little he came to recognise the difference between the spirits that were stirring". Ignatius was discovering God at work in his life; his desire for fame was transformed into a desire to dedicate himself completely to God, although he was still very unsure what this meant. "The one thing he wanted to do was to go to Jerusalem as soon as he recovered ... with as much of disciplines and fasts as a generous spirit, fired with God, would want to perform.
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