" Placed with the Son"- A short biography of St.Ignatius. -- Fr.Lawrence Dharmaraj s.j

(From the personal study notes under the guidance of late Fr.Maurice Dullard s.j)

1.   Saint Ignatius’ Family

Iñigo Lopez de Loyola was born in 1491. He later changed his name to Ignatius. He was the youngest of thirteen children. His mother died when he was a baby and was brought up by a foster mother, Maria Garin, in the farm house of Egubar, near the castle of Loyola. Iñigo lived at the farm house in his early years. When his eldest brother Martin Garcia married his wife became the lady of Loyola. She and his foster mother treated Ignatius very kindly and he was always very deeply attached to both women who had taken the place of his mother. His father died when Iñigo was about sixteen just before, or after, he left Loyola for Arevalo.

    The family lived in Loyola Castle, Azpeitia, in North-West Spain, in the Pyrenees Mountains close to the border between Spain and France. They were Basque and spoke the Basque language. They were and are a happy, musical people, fond of dancing. Yet they can be quiet, deeply reflective and strong willed. Loyola Castle is in a very beautiful valley with woods and orchards, especially apple and chestnut trees. It was a part of Spain where the Catholic faith was deeply accepted and lived out in ordinary life. So Iñigo grew up in a very catholic setting.

    One of the Iñigo’s brothers was a priest, and his father and many of his brothers were soldiers. They had all fought for the honour of their king. In fact, two of his brothers died fighting in the Naples campaign in 1498. One died fighting in South America and another died fighting the Turks in Hungary in 1542. Indeed Iñigo’s family members were deeply loyal to their king. In those days, one’s own religious loyalty and political loyalty went in hand in hand. In fact Iñigo grew up with these two great loyalties - loyalty to the Church and loyalty to his king. Moreover he had acquired from his family a great sense of doing what is noble and good.

 (to be continued chapter  2. The childhood of Ignatius)