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The Idea of Pilgrimage in the Experience of Ignatius Loyola

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

John C. Olin
John C. Olin
Affiliation:
Mr. Olin is professor of history in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Fordham University, Bronx, New York.
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Extract

The idea of pilgrimage occupies an important place in the life and thought of Ignatius Loyola. In the autobiography which he dictated to a colleague late in his life he refers to himself throughout as “the pilgrim.” He actually went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and describes in detail his long and difficult journey. His biographers too often use the term and imagery of pilgrimage when they write about his early years, yet the notion of pilgrimage in his life has never been explored to any extent; nor has its significance, I believe, been sufficiently taken into account. In this article I should like to focus on this theme and indicate what I consider to be its role and importance in his religious experience.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , December 1979 , pp. 387 - 397
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1979

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References

1. Olin, John C., ed., The Autobiography of St. Ignatius Loyola, trans. O'Callaghan, Joseph F. (New York, 1974).Google Scholar Hereafter referred to as Autobiography.

2. The Jesuit historian James Brodrick entitled his study of Ignatius' early years Saint Ignatius Loyola, the Pilgrim Years, 1491–1538 (New York, 1956),Google Scholar and Hastings, Macdonald gives the caption “Pilgrimage” to the middle and main portions of his memoir Jesuit Child (New York, 1971)Google Scholar in which he recounts the story of Ignatius and the Jesuits. The Spanish Ignatian scholar Pedro de Leturia, S. J., however, is the only author I know who has specifically discussed the pilgrimage theme. See his “Jerusalem y Roma en los designios de San Ignacio de Loyola,” in Pedro de Leturia, Estudios Ignacianos, 2 vols. (Rome, 1957), 1: 181–200.Google ScholarOsuna, Javier, S. J., Friends in the Lord, trans. King, Nicholas S. J. (London, 1974)Google Scholar is a penetrating study of Ignatius' experience and the origins of the Society of Jesus and emphasizes throughout the notion of pilgrimage.

3. There is much relevant material on this topic. Here are a few references that may be helpful and suggestive: Sacramentum Mundi, 1970 ed., S.V.V. “Pilgrimage” and “Sacred Times and Places”; Halkin, Léon-E., “Erasme Pélerin,” Scrinium Erasmianum, 2 vols., ed. Coppens, Joseph (Leiden, 1969), 2: 239–52;Google ScholarLadner, Gerhart B., “Homo Viator: Medieval Ideas on Alienation and Order,” Speculum 42 (04 1967): 233–259;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Berry, Thomas, “Contemporary Spirituality: the Journey of the Human Community,” Cross Currents 24 (Summer/Fall 1974): 172–183.Google Scholar I might note too the currency of notions of the evolutionary or biological journey of life through the eons, as in Eiseley, Loren, The Immense Journey (New York, 1962)Google Scholar and in the writings of the Jesuit paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin.

4. Hebrews 11:13–16, and also 13:14. A memorable passage in the correspondence of Erasmus echoes this basic Christian concept. In a letter of September 1522 refusing Zwingli's offer of citizenship in Zurich, Erasmus wrote: “I wish to be a citizen of the world, belonging everywhere, or perhaps better a pilgrim. Would that I might be enrolled in the heavenly city! For I aim toward it, though so many ailments repeatedly recur.” Opus epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami, 12 vols., ed. P. S. Allen, H. M. Allen, and H. W. Garrod (Oxford, 1906–1958), 5:129.Google Scholar

5. Augustine, St., The City of God, trans. Dods, Marcus (New York, 1950), pp. 3, 483–484, 668.Google Scholar

6. Rahner, Hugo, S. J. Greek Myths and Christian Mystery (New York, 1963), pp. xx, 328–330.Google Scholar

7. Marcel, Gabriel, Homo Viator, trans. Craufurd, Emma (Chicago, 1951),Google Scholar especially “Preface” and “Value and Immortality.”

8. Ibid., pp. 153–154.

9. de Leturia, Pedro, S. J., inigo de Loyola, trans. Owen, Aloysius J., S. J. (Syracuse, 1949), pp. 83–85.Google Scholar

10. Loyola, Ignatius, Autobiography, pp. 23–24.Google Scholar

11. Ibid., pp. 37–40.

12. Ibid., p. 49. See also Rahner, Hugo, S. J., The Spirituality of St. Ignatius Loyola, trans. Smith, F. J., S. J., (Westminster, Md., 1953), p. 57,Google Scholar and Osuna, , Friends, p. 27.Google Scholar

13. Loyola, Ignatius, Autobiography, pp. 50–51.Google Scholar

14. Ibid., p. 54.

15. Ibid., p. 80.

16. Ibid., pp. 80–81.

17. Osuna, , Friends, pp. 18–20, 52–58.Google Scholar Polanco, Ignatius' secretary later in Rome, states: “The first companions whom our Father Ignatius gathered at Paris, and he himself, did not go to Italy to found an order, but to go to Jerusalem and to preach and die amongst the infidel.” Quoted in Dudon, Paul, S. J., St. Ignatius of Loyola, trans. Young, William J., S. L., (Milwaukee, 1949), p. 235, n. 15.Google Scholar

18. Osuna, , Friends, pp. 90–91,Google Scholar and Leturia, , Estudios ignacianos, 1: 198–199, 215–216.Google Scholar

19. See Ignatius Loyola, Autobiography, app. 3.

20. Osuna, , Friends, pp. 12–20,Google Scholar and Rahner, , Spirituality of Ignatius, pp. 34–36.Google Scholar The two meditations will be found in The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, trans. Louis J. Puhl, S. J. (Chicago, reprint ed., n.d.), pp. 43–45 and 60–62.Google Scholar Subsequent references to the Spiritual Exercises will be to this edition.

21. Loyola, Ignatius, Spiritual Exercises, pp. 60–61.Google Scholar

22. Ibid., p. 52. on “the application of the senses,” see Rahner, Hugo, S. J., Ignatius the Theologian, trans. Barry, Michael (New York, 1968), chap. 5.Google Scholar

23. Loyola, Ignatius, Autobiography, pp. 80–81;Google Scholar see also the first sketch or Formula institut, which Ignatius and his companions drew up in 1539, app. 3.

24. Ignatius Loyola, Autobiography, app. 2.

25. See de Leturia, Pedro, S. J., “La primera misa de San Ignacio de Loyola y sus relaciones con la fundacion de la Compania,” Estudios ignacianos, 1: 223–235.Google Scholar

26. Loyola, Ignatius, Autobiography, p. 89.Google Scholar

27. Brodrick, , Saint Ignatius Loyola, p. 357.Google Scholar

28. Ignatius Loyola, Autobiography, app. 3.

29. Ibid., p. 107.

30. Loyola, Ignatius, in The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, trans. Ganss, George E., S. J. (St. Louis, 1970), pp. 79–80, General Examen, chap. 1. 5.Google Scholar

31. Ibid., p. 104, General Examen, chap. 4. 35.

32. Ibid., p. 170, Constitutions, part 3, chap. 2.6. See also part 4, Preamble, and part 7, chap. 1, pp. 172, 267.

33. Ibid., p. 97, General Examen, chap. 4. 12.

34. de Guibert, Joseph, S. J., The Jesuits, Their Spiritual Doctrine and Practice, trans. Young, William J., S. J. (Chicago, 1964), pp. 103–104.Google Scholar