Outside

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Introduction

1

“Iñigo, you won’t have any sense or learn your lesson until someone breaks your leg” (sculpture)

The ground floor

2

Be worth more

The first floor

3

The kitchen

4

Church, Sea or Royal Household

5

Iñigo, from knight to pilgrim

The second floor

6

To be born and born again

7

Oratory

8

To the greater glory of God

The third floor

9

The Chapel of the Conversion

10

From Loyola to the World

Sanctuary

11

Beginning of the exhibition

0. Introduction

Ignatius:

Welcome to the house of the Loyola family, my house!

Breathe let’s go inside my family’s house and learn about my story together. It’s the story of a person, born in the bosom of a noble family, who as an adult suffered a misfortune which nearly cost him his life. After this event, and, above all, during my convalescence in this house, a radical change took place in me. But, excuse me for having started to talk without introducing myself: I am Iñigo of Loyola, that is my name, although I’m better known now as Ignatius of Loyola. It wasn’t only my name that changed during my life, but the orientation of my life also changed. And this happened in this house. I had intended to be a knight of the royal court, but I went on to become a pilgrim in search of God.

I lived between two historical eras, known today as the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The social and religious changes of those times had a great influence on my life and work.

Yes, this house is where I started out on my path. A physical and spiritual path, during which I encountered difficulties; however, these obstacles did not divert me from my purpose.

Voice-over:

This tower-house of medieval origin was the home of the Loyola family. It has four floors. Throughout this visit, you’ll pass through the rooms in which Iñigo of Loyola, the youngest member of a noble family, was born, took his first steps, listened, learned, suffered and was born again.

The top floor is the heart of the house: The Chapel of the Conversion. That is where Iñigo of Loyola decided to change his life from that of a gallant knight, who enjoyed the pleasures of the Court, for a life in the service of others, and therefore, a life for the greater glory of God.

You’ll find numbered audio points during the visit that will guide you through the house.

Now you’ll hear a tune, the March of Saint Ignatius. Every time you hear it, it means the audio point has finished.

END: tune from the March of Saint Ignatius

1. “Iñigo, you won’t have any sense or learn your lesson until someone breaks your leg” (sculpture)

Female voice:

Iñigo, you won’t have any sense or learn your lesson until someone breaks your leg!

Ignatius:

My youthful mischief caused my aunt to repeat this sentence to me many times, and, as is so often the case, she was absolutely right! That’s what happened to me in the city of Pamplona.

This sculpture represents the consequences of that tragic event, which would change my life for ever. At 30 years of age, I, Iñigo, was seriously wounded in the defence of Pamplona Castle, in May 1521. Here I am, arriving at the doors of my house on a stretcher, facing the prospect of my more than probable death. I return home… to die?

Voice-over:

Young Iñigo, with his impeccable long blond hair, was brought up in the medieval culture which alternated between the value of arms and honour for a culture aimed more at administration and business. A world, that of the nobility, in which bravery and honour achieved wealth and powerful status in that rigid social hierarchy. Iñigo’s bravery was demonstrated, above all, in the siege of the Citadel of Pamplona.

What he thought was a chance to obtain honours became the opposite. Iñigo almost gave his life in a battle that was already lost before it was begun. Everything turned out upside down.

Iñigo arrived at Loyola, badly injured, tired and close to death. But little did he imagine the transformation his life would undergo!

To enter the house, we must pass through a door with a pointed arch, above which we can see the Loyola family coat of arms. It features two wolves at either side of a cauldron. From a heraldic point of view, the coat of arms transmits the idea of power, representing the family’s wealth in land and people.

On the other hand, the surname Loyola means mudhole or muddy place, in accordance with the location of the plot of the house, which is near a stream.

Years later, Iñigo’s brother transformed the coat of arms by adding the symbols of the Oñatz family.

END: tune from the March of Saint Ignatius

2. Be worth more

Visitor:

Knock, knock, knock! (noise of knocking on the door)

Servant and background ambience:

Who’s there? Oñacino or Gamboíno?

(the sound of an old and heavy door opening is heard)

Iñigo:

We’ve got company today!

I’m told that the time of my ancestors was violent. It was a hierarchical society with conflicts over power and the control of territories and people.

In the case of Gipuzkoa, the lords of the land were at the head of this conflict. Two bands confronted each other, the Oñacinos and the Gamboínos.

Both bands comprised families united by personal or family ties called parientes mayores. And that’s what we Loyolas are.

In my grandfather’s time, this balance between the factional lords was threatened by a shared enemy which made Oñacinos and Gamboínos set aside their differences, become allies and unite to fight it.

This powerful enemy was formed by burghs with the support of royal power. Their sphere of influence grew ever larger, and so did their need for territory. This meant direct competition, leading to a marked reduction in our rents and incomes.

As you can see… the rise of the burghs was a challenge… which ended with my grandfather and family in exile! And with the tower-houses destroyed, even this one… so sturdy… was consumed by flames!

This house was a fortress, yes, and it defended us from our enemies. But, above all, it is a symbol of the power of the Loyolas, a family that must be “worth more” in rents, in men, in honour, which is what our coat of arms represents.

END: tune from the March of Saint Ignatius

3. The kitchen

Iñigo:

Mmmm, what a great smell! (kitchen noise: crackling fire, noises, but noises of earthenware pots and wooden dishes…) The stew smells good! Is it mutton or wild boar? It’d be delicious with a bit of tomato and a few potatoes. Hang on… What am I saying? When I was born, in 1491, Columbus had not yet reached the Americas. We’re getting ahead of ourselves!

Woman:

Be careful! Don’t burn yourself! It’d be better to come when it gets dark! We sit in small creaking chairs around the fire. And we talk together about the news of our extended family and the valley, and about news arriving from a new land, about past battles, about the adventures that the family’s grown-up children are living in distant countries. The daughters married well! They live very close by with their families, so we regularly get all the latest news.

And we also talk about… the future!

Ignatius:

I remember this kitchen, with its unmistakeable smell of smoke. Wood smoke from under the pots, which was extracted by that enormous stove hood.

I took my first steps in this kitchen, and this is where I learned my first lessons. Between these walls, I learned what it means to be an honest person. The value of giving your word, honour, human and Christian values. And where I forged my personality, my Loyola inheritance, that guided me throughout my whole life.

I lived through an era of transition. I inherited the principles of honour and blood from medieval times, and later I internalised the importance of studying and training for people.

After Loyola, during the time I spent in Manresa, I lived as a beggar and used to withdraw to a cave to pray. I wanted to live how I imagined saints used to live. I mortified my body with long, tough fasts, which had a bad effect on my health. From that point onwards, I suffered stomach ache for the rest of my life.

At the end of my days, in my room in Rome, as death came close, my companions gave me a gift of what?… roast chestnuts! What a feast! Their taste and smell took me back to this kitchen, to my house, for the last time! (crackling of chestnuts)

END: tune from the March of Saint Ignatius

4. Church, Sea or Royal Household

Ignatius:

I was the thirteenth child, the youngest. In my family, the male children were always told, “Church, Sea or Royal Household.” Three future proposals defined by our order of birth. My eldest brother had it easy. By tradition, he was the sole inheritor. That is, of the house, the land, the properties…, of everything. But me… the little one… the last of 13, what was I going to do?

This ship drawn on the wall of this room shows some of the ventures my brothers joined. The first-born, the inheritor of the family, signed on as a sailor and died. The inheritance of the estate passed on to my brother Martín, the second-born. Another of my brothers fought in the war in Naples. Pedro, the sixth, was a priest. My sisters left home when they got married.

However, the ship also symbolises my life! Because my life is also a journey. A journey that starts in this house and ends in Rome in 1556. In Arévalo, at Court, I became educated in the manners of a knight and learned calligraphy and administration. I almost died in Pamplona. Afterwards, I spent time in Montserrat, Manresa, Barcelona, Venice, Jerusalem, Alcalá de Henares, Salamanca, Paris, Rome. Wow! I made most of the journeys on foot, thanks to divine providence. I made these journeys for different reasons, some for academic training and others for spiritual training. And although I never set foot in the Far East or the recently discovered Americas, my work, the Society of Jesus, thanks to my companions and followers, spread far and wide throughout the known world. The Society of Jesus was born with a universal vocation.

Arévalo was my first stop. Juan Velázquez de Cuéllar, Head Treasurer of the Kingdom of Castille, and his wife, María Velasco, a member of our family, accepted me as their pupil in Arévalo. Me, in the court of the Catholic Monarchs! What luck! It gave me the chance to take charge of my own destiny. I made friends, and also enemies. The future looked promising. However, there were still bitter moments in store for me.

I arrived in Arévalo, in Ávila, at 15 years of age. There I served as a page and then as a young nobleman. Over the years in Arévalo, little by little I came to know what a knight needed to know. I learned to dance, sing, fight duels and read and write… in Spanish. I was very fond of listening to and playing the vihuela, an instrument similar to the guitar. Let’s listen to this beautiful melody!

Music by Anchieta…

Chivalric romances, of which I was very fond, filled my head with adventures and achievements to win honour and, perhaps, the love of a lady. This arrogance and my young age got me into trouble more than once. Like any young man in my position, I also got up to mischief.

Life in the court of Castille smiled on me, but when my protector died and his family fell from grace, my future looked uncertain. Through the recommendation of the family, I became a knight of the Duke of Nájera and Viceroy of Navarre, Antonio Manrique de Lara. We were related, he had links with the old Oñacinos in my family.

END: tune from the March of Saint Ignatius

5. Iñigo, from knight to pilgrim

(Sounds of war: cannons firing, shouts, clashing swords, the whistle of arrows…)

In 1521, French and Navarrese troops tried to recapture the Kingdom of Navarre by taking Pamplona. I was at the service of my lord, among the defenders of the city, Castilian and Navarrese troops too. The enemy was plentiful and there were only a few of us. Only the castle remained for us to defend. The battle was already lost. However, the madness of honour and loyalty, by which I was guided, made me refuse to surrender. A dream of honour, cut short by a cannon shot which destroyed my right leg and badly injured my left leg too. The fortress surrendered.

My companions and also the enemy tried to treat me, but I was battered and weak. They did what they could!

I was taken home on a stretcher, thinking I was going to die. My family were waiting for me here. My convalescence was tough and lasted for months. But, miraculously, I recovered and… I experienced a profound inner transformation. I became enthusiastic about Jesus Christ and wanted to discover and live in his homeland. At that time, the journey to Jerusalem was not easy. Also, I had to ask the Pope for permission to travel to the Holy Land.

Before boarding the ship in Barcelona, I stopped at the Monastery of Montserrat. I have such great memories of the Virgin of Montserrat! After a general confession and vigil before the Virgin, I handed my nobleman’s clothes to a beggar and dressed in a pilgrim’s sackcloth.

I entered Montserrat as a knight and left as a pilgrim.

END: tune from the March of Saint Ignatius

6. To be born and born again

Ignatius:

We are in my parents’ bedroom. The place of my two births. Yes, that’s what I said! I was born in this room in 1491 and was born again in this house in 1521. Yes, thirty years later!

It’s emotional for me to enter into this bedroom, because I lost my mother when I was very small. I can hardly remember her. I was raised by María Garín, the wife of our blacksmith, as if I was just another of her children. They lived in the Egibar farmstead, near this house.

When my brother Martín married Magdalena de Araoz, because of the great difference in our ages, my sister-in-law looked after me as if I was her child, until I went to Arévalo. When I was brought back from Pamplona, she was waiting for me here.

As I was saying, I was born in this room as Iñigo, I saw the light for the first time. But do we only see the light when we are born? Many people, following a traumatic event, undergo an inner transformation, as I did.

During my convalescence, I underwent an inner process which led me to take a new approach to my future. It was a new birth: a rebirth. The conversion that changed me and gave me strength to begin a new path took place in 1521.

Years later, when I was 44 years old, I had another serious health malady that took me to Azpeitia for the last time. My brother wanted me to stay in this house. But I refused. In the face of his amazement and anger, I stayed in the Hospital de la Magdalena, where they took in the sick, the poor and the disinherited of society.

I devoted myself to spreading the word of God. My brother warned me that I would fail. How wrong he was!

Many people came to hear me. I especially liked saying the Catechism. I committed myself to eliminating vices and encouraging neighbours to live together peacefully. I encouraged practices of piety, charity and virtue. I was even able to inspire the writing of some regulations used to organise a welfare system.

In that way, I tried to correct the bad example I had given my fellows when I was a young man.

END: tune from the March of Saint Ignatius

7. Oratory

Ignatius:

What peace! This place invites withdrawal, to establish intimate communication with God!

As a young man, I did not follow the Commandments very closely. In fact, I kept my distance from the Church. Today, I’d be called a reveller. Youth and feeling secure in the power of my lineage did the rest.

I started to frequent this oratory during my convalescence. How many hours I spent here! I was looking for peace. This, in connection with religious reading, prayer, reflection and the search for the meaning of my inner experiences, meant that my concept of life began to change. I wanted to imitate the saints due to my love of Jesus. I was overwhelmed by the idea of penitence. I wanted to live like the saints! If they had done it, so could I.

And the altar! It’s dedicated to the Virgin and features two scenes from her life: the painting shows the Annunciation of the birth of Jesus. The sculpture of the Pietá expresses Mary’s anguish at the death of her son. Mary! How important you’ve been in my life!

I’ve never forgotten the vision I had of the Virgin Mary during my worst moments. She has accompanied and guided me all my life, always at my side. I prostrated myself at her feet on my way to Jerusalem.

The oratory, too, is another of the symbolic places in the house. This is where Francis Borgia celebrated his first mass.

I met Borgia in Alcalá. He was a distinguished young man. I was a poor student, twenty years older than him. That first time, we just exchanged glances. After becoming a widower, he became a Jesuit. Who would have guessed that in the future he would live in Loyola and be Superior General of the Society of Jesus!

END: tune from the March of Saint Ignatius

8. To the greater glory of God

Ignatius:

We’ve come through the dining room and now we’re in the main hall. This is where people were received and where we had fun sometimes, looking at the first books to arrive or the decorations on the wall, with tapestries depicting many people.

When my house was restored, these shelves, which must have served as a library, were found. And that’s where I went looking for something to entertain myself during my convalescence. I wanted to read chivalric romances. I had become fond of them in Arévalo. All the books I found were about religious subjects and I chose the Vita Christi and The Lives of Saints. It’s amazing how those two works changed my life!

A coat of arms! A lineage! This hall! Symbols of earthly power! I left all that behind and promised fidelity to a Lord who was not mortal.

I soon realised that I had to get an education if I wanted to help people. So I started a long academic journey that took me to Barcelona, Alcalá de Henares, Salamanca and Paris. I arrived at Paris when I was 37 years old. A city with 250,000 inhabitants and more than 4,000 students. I had to do a compulsory preparation course, where my classmates were 10 year-old children. I paid for my studies with the alms I collected over summer in the rich territories of Flanders and London.

Destiny is so arbitrary! My work did not begin in a hall like this. It took shape in the college bedroom where I lived in Paris. My friendship with my room-mates, Francis Xavier and Peter Faber, widened to include other companions. We formed a group of 7 friends who wanted to live in poverty in the service of God. Our aim was to live in Jerusalem, the land of Jesus. Man proposes and God disposes! I never returned to Jerusalem! God had another path ready for me!

END: tune from the March of Saint Ignatius

9. The Chapel of the Conversion

Ignatius:

We are in the heart of this house! The room where my transformation took place!

This place has changed a lot since those days. I was installed in a bedroom on this floor. Their minds were on a fatal outcome. My leg bones had fused together badly. Doctors tried to alleviate the pain I suffered, as well as to mend the leg wound. I never complained! I underwent extremely painful operations. Although that didn’t stop me limping for the rest of my life.

I was delirious day and night in the midst of tremendous suffering. How much physical pain! One day, the doctors announced my imminent death, but God had other ideas…

Recovery was long and arduous. I soon began to think about my future. A limp would prevent me from continuing my former life! What would become of me?

During sleepless nights, I used to like moving close to my bedroom window to look at the stars. I was absorbed for hours and hours watching them shine.

During the day, I sought entertainment in reading. The long hours I devoted to The Life of Christ and the Saints left me restless inside. My character, vehement at the best of times, began to abhor my former life. I didn’t understand what was happening! Until I realised it was God speaking to me from inside myself. That was the moment when my conversion started to take shape little by little. I took the decision to follow the flag of Jesus, who would be my only Lord. The example I saw in the saints encouraged me to follow their path.

That exact moment is portrayed in the sculpture we see in the chapel. I am represented reclining, with my leg injured and bandaged, dressed as a nobleman of the era. I pause in my reading. In one hand, I hold open the book I am reading and by my side is the other book, left closed. My face, looking at the sky, seems to hear the call of Jesus and my purpose to follow him in everything. This is the moment of my conversion. The sentence carved into the beam reminds us of it: “Iñigo de Loyola gave himself to God here.” There we have it, that’s the truth. Everything began here!

END: tune from the March of Saint Ignatius

10. From Loyola to the World

Ignatius:

I left Loyola without revealing my true purposes to my brother Martín. He didn’t want me to leave my courtly life, so I told him I was going to visit the Duke of Nájera, my former lord, to arrange some matters.

My first stop was Aránzazu where I made a vow of chastity before the Virgin. From there, I headed to Montserrat, where I made a general confession. On my way to board ship in Barcelona, I stopped in Manresa. I intended to spend a few days there, but those few days turned into a year.

I lived as a poor man and a beggar, taken in by the good people of that city. I often used to withdraw to a cave on the outskirts of the city and spent long hours praying there. I lived through very difficult and dark moments, but I was able to get out of them with the grace of God.

I remember very well that one day, looking at the Cardoner River, which flowed below, I saw everything in a new way. This gave me great peace and security in my future. I understood that what I had received up to that moment could help others and I began to put my experiences in writing. This notebook is the origin of The Spiritual Exercises, a manual of practices and advice to help people find the will of God without any delusions.

I made great friendships in Manresa. Men and women who helped me a lot. I said goodbye and continued on my way to the Holy Land, where they wouldn’t let me stay. Upon my return, determined to get an education, I passed through Barcelona, Alcalá de Henares and Salamanca, arriving in Paris. After finishing my studies, with the group of companions I spoke about earlier, we reached Venice, with the intention of going to Jerusalem. We wanted to live in poverty and serve God in the land of Jesus. While we were waiting to board ship, I was ordained a priest. They were violent years: there was a war in the Mediterranean against the Turkish empire. In Europe, political and religious wars, plagues… rendered our dream impossible. So we decided to put ourselves at the service of the Pope.

On the way, I experienced many spiritual feelings. The most important was the one I felt in the chapel at La Storta, a short distance from Rome. Praying in the chapel, I had a vision. God the Father was talking to Jesus who was carrying the cross, telling him to take me as his servant. Jesus turned and said to me:

Jesus:

I want you to serve us.

Ignatius:

Upon leaving the chapel, I said to my travelling companions that I didn’t know what we would find in Rome, but we were certainly on the road to fulfilling our project to follow Jesus to the end.

A few years later, Pope Paul III approved our group of friends as a new religious order, the Society of Jesus. From the beginning, in response to requests from the Pope and the needs of the Church, we began to spread throughout the known world.

My companions chose me as their superior and I had to stay in Rome, writing and giving shape to the Society of Jesus. I hardly ever left Rome now, where I finally met God face-to-face on 31 July 1556.

END: tune from the March of Saint Ignatius

11. Beginning of the exhibition

Ignatius:

We’ve come to the end of the tour of my house. From now on, you won’t hear my voice, but I’m still at your side.

As you’ll see, the path I started in this house goes on and, as I said, I’d like to carry on accompanying you. We’ve left the house of my birth together and we’ve gone along the corridor and entered rooms that are part of the Sanctuary of Loyola.

Next, a route begins where you can visit an exhibition in which my life is represented through artworks, objects and information panels. And as you already know, it will be easy for you to recognise many of the stories I’ve talked about up to now.

As well as telling my own story, the exhibition also tells, as you would expect, the story of the Society of Jesus, which was founded in 1540. I carried out this work accompanied by excellent collaborators who helped me consolidate a male religious order which is present throughout the world, at the service of others.

You should see what it’s become today, something that was started one day by 10 companions!

END: tune from the March of Saint Ignatius