Post #6161

SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA, CONFESSOR Ignatius, of Spanish nationality, was born in 1491 in Loyola in Cantabria, into a noble family. Eleventh son of the lord of Loyola, he entered as a page, at the age of fifteen, at the court of the Catholic king Ferdinand V. Ardent and warlike nature, he then embraced a military career. Having been badly wounded in the leg during the siege of Pamplona, he was confined to bed. During his long convalescence, in the absence of books of chivalry which he was passionate about, he was given to read some pious books on the life of Jesus Christ and that of the Saints. This reading was a revelation to him. He understood that the Church too has her militia, which under the orders of Christ's representative, struggles to defend God's holy interests of armies on earth.