In 1767 Charles III (1759–88) summarily expelled all Jesuits from his dominions in Europe and America. At this time the Mexican province of the Company of Jesus numbered 678 priests and brothers, many of whom came from leading Creole families. At one stroke, the colleges which had provided education in all the chief cities of the kingdom were closed. In the capital, the San Ildefonso college had been rebuilt on a majestic scale during the 1740s and was renowned for the distinction of its students who became ‘bishops, judges, canons and professors in all the faculties’. In Puebla the Jesuits had only just completed rebuilding their splendidly decorated new church. The Mexican province was in the midst of a marked expansion in activity and manifested all the signs of an intellectual regeneration when the detachments of soldiers bearing the expulsion orders arrived at their colleges and mission stations. A priest later recalled how his brethren were abruptly instructed to pack their sparse belongings and within two days were escorted to the port of Veracruz, their journey broken only by a last, merciful visit for prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint, in her sanctuary at Tepeyac. Thereafter, the Jesuits faced a long voyage to Cadiz, followed by an equally arduous journey, first to Corsica, and then to Papal States. Several elderly or infirm priests died on the way; a few sought release from their vows; and the faithful survivors found lodgings in Italian cities there to eke out a penurious, obscure existence until their death. Of over 500 Mexican-born Jesuits, only two were destined to see their beloved homeland again.