Jesuits

Jesuits

– a member of the Society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic

order of priests founded by St. Ignatius Loyola, St.
Francis Xavier, and others in 1534, to do missionary
work. The order was zealous in opposing the
Reformation. Despite periodic persecution it has
retained an important influence in Catholic thought
and education.
St. Ignatius Loyola

In 1521 a 30-year-old Spanish

aristocrat and soldier, Ignatius of Loyola,
is defending the citadel of Pamplona
against a French attack. A cannonball
breaks his right leg. Recuperating in the
ancestral castle at Loyola, he finds
himself without his favorite type of
reading - heroic romances. Instead the
castle has a volume on the lives of the
saints. Reading it, he warms to another
sort of heroism. 
HISTORY
A soldier saint: 1521-1539

– Ignatius is destined to equal the achievement of the two earlier

founders of preaching orders, but only after a long period of
self-preparation. Part of this is spiritual, in a rigorous
programme of mental training (including macabre instructions
on How to imagine Hell) which he outlines in his book Spiritual
Exercises. Part is more conventionally educational. 
Society of Jesus: 1540-1541

– The visit to the pope by Ignatius Loyola has echoes of St Francis and St Dominic
 with Innocent III. Like those 13th-century saints, with their mission to live and
preach among the poor of the expanding towns, St Ignatius is very much of his
own time - a man of the 16th century, where the twin challenge is the drift of
much of Europe into the Protestant heresy and the opening up of a far-flung
pagan world, bringing fruitful fields for mission work in this new age of ocean
travel and exploration. 
 Apostle of the Indies: 1542-1552

The ten years spend in the east by Francis Xavier win him the title 'apostle of the Indies',
and cause him to be named by the Vatican (in 1927) as the patron saint of all missions. 

Xavier arrives in 1542 in Goa, the capital of Portuguese India. Here he works with
Dominican and Franciscan missionaries before departing on a two-year mission of his own
among pearl fishers near Cape Comorin, at the southern tip of India. In a pattern often
typical of the spread of Christianity, the fishermen have already undergone mass baptism -
in this case in return for Portuguese protection against similar attention from Muslims. But
no one has yet had time to explain to them the religion they have adopted. 
 
Christians in Japan: 1543-1550

– The first European arrival in Japan is an accident. A

Portuguese merchant vessel, bound for China, is blown in
a storm to the southern tip of Kyushu. The strangers are
welcomed. Particular interest is shown in the muskets
which they have on board, soon to be successfully copied
in Japan. 
 Rival missions: 16th - 18th century

– In the great period of Roman Catholic missions, during the Catholic

Reformation, the Spanish and Portuguese expansion round the globe is
everywhere accompanied by members of the four great preaching orders -
Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians and Jesuits. The Jesuits, starting later
and moving faster, are the most energetic. By 1615, at the end of the long
generalship of Claudio Aquaviva, they have divided the world into thirty-
two provinces in which they run more than 200 colleges. 

But the success of the Jesuits, together with underlying differences of

attitude, provokes the hostility of the Franciscans and Dominicans. 
 
Monks, nuns and friars in the modern world

– The prestige of the religious orders suffers almost fatally

from the anti-clerical spirit of the late 18th century
(culminating in the suppression of the Jesuits), and from
violent hostility during the French Revolution.
Monasteries, even in Catholic countries, never again
recover the economic power which they once enjoyed.
And the preaching orders lose much of the influence
acquired during the fervour of the Catholic Reformation
What was the main aim of the Jesuits?

– Spread the Catholic faith

What form did Jesuit training take?

– 2 year noviciate, with Spiritual Exercises

Education in lower levels of society
Second noviciate.
Who founded the Jesuits? When? Who were his six
companions?

– Ignatius of Loyola
1534
Bobadilla, Salmeron, Lainez, Xavier, Rodriguez and Favre
When were the Jesuits officially founded by a papal bull?
– 1540
What did Jesuits mainly work as?

– Pastors, missionaries, educators, preachers

and confessors
Where was the most Jesuit success in missions?

– Brazil, Goa and India, the Netherlands,

Poland and Germany
Who supported the Jesuits?

– Aristocrats and high-born ladies

JESUITS VALUES
Jesuit in the Philippines
Specific Contributions

– The arts of stone cutting and brick making

– Father Chirino established the first elementary Jesuits school for
Visayan Children ( Tigbauan, Iloilo)
– Jesuits College in Manila endowed by Rodrigues de Figueroa
– College of San Jose founded by Father Garcia
– They had taken their own measures of local defense, such as
building watchtowers, training and arming militia, and fortifying
their mission compounds to serve as citadels for their flocks.