Thursday, July 31, 2025

It is the 31st of July 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Ok, stay with me here… so yesterday we told the story of Peter Chrysologus, who actually died on this day, but I told you that when it was discovered that he DIDN’T die in December (when his feast day was on the Calendar), but on the 31st of July, there was a problem. The 31st of July is the feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola and, for Catholics, that is too hallowed a name to have to share a feast day. And, as I was thinking, “certainly I’ve done a show on him, besides- I have the fascinating story of the Japanese orthodox Saint who rescued countless Jews in Lithuania during the holocaust… but I decided that story needed an upgrade to Weekend Edition status. So I went searching only to discover that while Ignatius has been mentioned on the show, he had not been given his own episode. And thus, I present to you today- the man who gets the 31st of July all to himself: Ignatius of Loyola.

Let me introduce him by saying this, if you wanted the biography of the great person behind the religious movements in the 16th century you would pick Luther and Calvin, obviously- I think Zwingli for the Swiss and a mix of Muntzer and Simons for the radicals… and if I had to pick one Catholic biography for the century- it would not be a pope or emperor or even someone primarily considered a theologian. In fact, Ignatius, born in 1491, was an unlikely religious leader. He would be, at most 5’ 2” with reddish hair and was a page to a relative who was a knight in the kingdom of Castille. BY 1517, he would become a Knight in the service of Navarre, such that in 1521, he was in Pamplona protecting a castle from the French when a cannonball tore through his leg, leaving him bedridden for over a year. While convalescing, he read a book about the Saints, which described their service to God as a kind of Chivalry. Excited by a new call, he set out on a pilgrimage to Montserrat and lived for a year in a cave and as a beggar. He eventually made his way to study at the University of Paris- but before he could attend, he had to take remedial Latin with young children (he was planning on a military life, not a religious one).

While at the University between 1528 and his ordination in 1537, he would room with Francis Xavier, and they and a few others would devote themselves to study and service. This would be the core of the Society of Jesus- or the Jesuits, who were approved by the Pope in 1540.

His main work would be the Spiritual Exercises- one of the best-selling Christian books of all time- broken into Four Weeks, it can serve as a model for contemplation, meditation, and contemplative practices.

While the book is one of the most popular in Christian history, it is his work as the founder of the Jesuits that makes him a true towering figure of his age. The Jesuits would be seen by some as a shadowy group, the “infantry” of the Catholic Church sent out across the globe to spread Catholicism, but more importantly, Roman influence. Much of the hysteria of this movement is a reaction to their own context- by 1540, the Reformation was well underway, and the Catholic Church saw the new and unexplored world as the next frontier. This made the Jesuits some of the great missionaries and apologists in the Far East. We have told many stories of those Jesuits who first got into China and Japan, and how later missionaries could use some of their work to help further their evangelism.

Ignatius was, as a small man who came into the ministry with a debilitating injury, unable to travel as he would wish, but his followers would- including Xavier to the Far East and his friend Peter Faber.

When Ignatius died on this, the 31st of July in 1556, there were over 1,000 Jesuits in 12 orders across the Globe, and he had helped to found the Roman College in Rome, which was the forerunner to the Pontifical Gregorian University. Ignatius of Loyola is recognized as the patron saint of retreats, soldiers, and students. Born in 1491- the towering (at 5’2”) figure of 16th-century Catholicism: Ignatius of Loyola died on this day in 1556 at the age of 65.  

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and the doxology from the Epistle to the Romans in the 11th chapter:

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
    How unsearchable his judgments,

    and his paths beyond tracing out!

“Who has known the mind of the Lord?

    Or who has been his counselor?”

“Who has ever given to God,

    that God should repay them?”

For from him and through him and for him are all things.

    To him be the glory forever! Amen.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 31st of July 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who wonders how much Ignatius would like that I kept bringing up his height… he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who did read Loyola was a little vain and did have his broken leg reset- without anesthesia, so he’d look better in his courtly tights. True story, I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.