This week in Christian history: Jesuit founder canonized, martyr killed, dozens massacred

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, March 07, 2021

Jesuit founder made a saint - March 12, 1622

Saint Ignatius of Loyola | Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

This week marks the anniversary of when Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the influential Roman Catholic order the Society of Jesus, was officially canonized by Pope Gregory XV.

A Spanish soldier who became a priest after being severely wounded in battle, Loyola founded the Jesuits in large part to counter the intellectual influences of the Protestant Reformation.

“Pope Paul III approved the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) but was reluctant to grant it much power because its members considered themselves soldiers of Christ to go where needed, and were not bound to convents, set times of prayer, priestly garb, or the austerities that had dominated Loyola’s early efforts to please God,” explained the Christian History Institute.

“Therefore the pope limited the Jesuits to sixty members. However, they soon proved so useful in the Catholic Counter-Reformation as diplomats, missionaries, educators, preachers, agitators, and martyrs, that the restriction was lifted. By Loyola’s death in 1556, there were already a thousand Jesuits.”