10. Ignatius and his companions.

 

    Ignatius was gathering companions who would share his vision and zeal for God’s work. At Alcala from 1525 to 1527, he gathered three companions: Calisto D’Sa, Juan De Arteaga and Lobe de Carcases. They went with him to Salamanca and were put in prison along with Ignatius there. In 1528 Ignatius went to Paris while these three remained in Spain. Eventually they lost contact with Ignatius.

 

    In Paris Ignatius met Peter Favre. Peter Favre helped Ignatius in his studies and in return Ignatius helped Peter Favre in spiritual matters. Peter Favre went through the Spiritual Exercises and was so impressed with them that he brought his roommate Francis Xavier to Ignatius. At first Francis Xavier distrusted Ignatius but Ignatius gradually won him over. Three Spaniards - Diego Laynez, Alphonso Salmeron and Nicolas Bobadilla, and a Portuguese - Simon Rodrigues joined the group. Ignatius gave then all the Spiritual Exercises. This brought about a tremendous change in them. They were fired with zeal for God’s work and formed themselves into a group of ‘friends in the Lord’. 

    They were eager to go with Ignatius to work in the Holy Land. In fact, on 15^th August, 1534 at Our Lady’s Chapel in Montmartre, they all took the vows of poverty and chastity with a vow to go to the Holy Land. They decided that in case they did not succeed to go the Holy Land in a year’s time they would go to Rome and present themselves to the Pope and take up the task and go wherever the Pope would send them. In this way they would be more certain of doing God’s will. They had no superior but regarded Ignatius as their leader since he was the original inspiration in uniting them for God’s work.

 

    Ignatius fell sick in 1535 so his friends and the doctors advised him to go to Spain for some months. Peter Favre then became the natural leader of the group. The group was so strong that even during Ignatius’ absence they got three new members to join them: Claude Le Jay, Paschase Broet and Jean Codure. They all joined Ignatius in Venice on January 1537. Ignatius called them “My nine friends in the Lord".

    In Venice they began to think seriously about ordination and their pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Peter Favre and Claude Le Jay were priests before joining the group. The remaining seven were ordained in Venice on 24^th June 1537. Due to the Turkish war there was no ship going to the Holy Land. So, in September 1537 the companions set out for Rome to present themselves to the Pope.

( Coming up next.   Chapter 11.Ignatius and La Storta. )

"Placed with the Son"- A short biography of St. Ignatius

 

By Fr. Lawrence Dharmaraj, SJ

 

(From the personal study notes under the guidance of late Fr. Maurice Dullard, SJ. 

A special thanks to Fr.Vincent Saldanha s.j for doing the necessary corrections))