St Ignatius of Loyola

Ignatius had eleven brothers and sisters and he was born into a very rich family. When he was a little boy his family sent him to work for King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella; Ignatius dreamed that one day he would become one of the King’s soldiers and marry a beautiful Lady – but God had other wonderful plans for him. Ignatius did become a soldier, but got injured during battle. While he was getting better, he had to stay at the hospital and the only thing to do there was read books about Jesus and the lives of the Saints. Through these books God asked Ignatius to follow him and Ignatius said yes! His first job was to go back to school in France. When he finished he became a priest and joined two other men, Blessed Peter Faber and Saint Francis Xavier, and they promised to do whatever the Pope asked of them. This group of three men started the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), which is still a large group of priests (30,000 members) who run universities and colleges around the world today.