Saint Ignatius of Loyola
Manresa 2022 outline considers the city as the initiation of the history of Ignatius and the order he founded later on. Therefore, the basis of this project is "to return Ignatius to the city"; that is to say, to make the memoir of Saint Ignatius's stay in the city present again in our streets, and to regain the historical recognition he had.
Ignasi's stay in Manresa is a story of welcome, fellowship and hospitality. The city of Cardener was a stop and inn for the pilgrim, popularly known by the people of Manresa as "The Holy man" or "Man with the sack".
- The Holy Man: it's a nickname that highlighted Ignatius as a kind and grateful man. In addition to his spiritual and mystical aura. It is, however, a denomination that links him more directly with St. Ignatius than with Ignatius, a figure more proper to religious devotion than to citizenship. It is also an overly generic concept, which does not singularize the character and does not sufficiently identify him with the city.
- The pilgrim: it is another of Ignasi's portraits, which links him to the idea of ??the path that took him from Loyola to Manresa, the trails that run through his city and his work around the world. Even though it is a name that relates it more to the Ignatian Way than to Manresa, Ignatius identified himself as a pilgrim.
- L'Home del Sac (The man with the sack): name by which it seems that many people from Manresa at the time referred to him, due to his austere clothing, with sackcloth.
- There is also a story of Light: Several lights illustrated St. Ignatius, according to the autobiography, in its spirituality and universality. Light is present throughout Ignatian hagiography—a view in the Cardener, white lightning in the Preachers, and so on.
The inhabitant's perception of the character developed the idea of a relationship between Manresa and Ignatius. This vision portrayed him like a popular figure, that of a Holy Man or Man of the Sack.
L'Home del Sac evokes the identification with the value of austerity represented by his journey through Manresa (and in line with the current papal message): "He was dressed in sackcloth and asked for alms." This description is the image that best depicts him, in his hermit and contemplative dimension—the careless and sick man.
Biography of Saint Ignatius of Loyola
1491: Íñigo López de Recalde is born in Loiola in a family of the Basque nobility.
1521: He falls wounded during the defence of Pamplona. In the course of his convalescence, he experiences a profound transformation, which pushes him to abandon the previous life and to seek the will of God. So forth, he decides to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and live the life of a penitent.
1522: The first phase of the pilgrimage takes him to Montserrat -where he confesses and shows off his dress, armour and sword- and to Manresa, where he will live for eleven months. In the capital of Bages
(Manresa) , he experiences episodes of spiritual fervour, crisis and enlightenment, which will strengthen his religious vocation and leave a deep imprint, which will culminate in the writing of the Spiritual Exercises and the subsequent foundation of the Jesuit order.
1523: He stays in Jerusalem.
1524-1527: He studies grammar in Barcelona and continues his training in Alcalá - where he is tried by the Inquisition and imprisoned - and in Salamanca, where he is sought for the second time and is forbidden to preach and teach theology. Seeing that, he decides to leave Spain.
1528-1535: He graduated in Philosophy in Paris (1535) and began studying Theology.
1537: Ordained as a priest in Venice, he celebrates the first Mass in Rome.
1540: Pope Paul III approves the founding of the Society of Jesus. The following year the drafting of the Order's Constitutions began, and he was elected superior general. So forth, he established his residence permanently in Rome.
1553-1555: He recounts his experiences to his secretary, who wrote his autobiography.
1556: He dies in Rome (July 31).
1609: Paul V beatifies him.
1622: Gregory XV canonizes him.