Ignatius Loyola

Quote: "Let me look at the foulness and ugliness of my body. Let me see myself as an ulcerous sore running with every horrible and disgusting poison." (Ignatius Loyola) A small boy when Columbus first set sail, Ignatius Loyola (1491 - 1556) grew up in a world filled with possibility and exploding with geographical and mechanical discoveries. As the founder of the Society of Jesus—known simply as the Jesuits—he formed a militaristic missionary organization demanding strict discipline and loyalty. He set the pace for Catholic outreach worldwide, and before he died there were Jesuits scattered across Europe and serving in outposts as remote as India, Japan, and Brazil. Born into nobility in the Basque country of Spain, Loyola is schooled in the Spanish court and steeped in military training and the art of chivalry. But the excitement of training soon turns into the horrors of a war in which his shin is shattered by a cannonball. He endures excruciating primitive surgery with no anesthetic, leaving him with constant pain and a lifelong limp.