Ignatius’ conversion to Christ starts in Loyola with the reading of pious books during his convalescence after being injured in battle in Pamplona. It then plays out in a ‘long retreat’ in Manresa which lasts eleven months. It carries on in a long pilgrimage which leads him hither and thither and eventually to Jerusalem. It is in the holy city that the Church makes a dramatic intervention when the Franciscan provincial refuses to let Ignatius stay. There is an important consequence: Ignatius is forced to rethink his life plans. From now on, the pilgrim asks himself what he is to do: Quid agendum?
This is how he answers the question: ‘In the end, he was inclining more towards studying for a time in order to be able to help souls and was coming to the decision to go to Barcelona’.[1] Note the link between the two parts: to study and to help souls. Ignatius cannot do the second without having done the first. If he has the desire to ‘help souls’ it is because he has already had a taste of the experience before leaving for Jerusalem.
‘Helping souls’ means talking to people about God and helping them to find Him in prayer and in the stories of their lives. By these memorable words Ignatius means exercising various ‘ministries of the word’: spiritual exercises and conversation, catechesis. This link between the studying and helping souls will be a constant throughout his studies.
A third component of what will be the Jesuit vocation appears in the shape of a desire to gather companions for a shared project. We have to hold all three points together, for here we are at the heart of Ignatius’ apostolic project and that of the Jesuits.
Where does ordination to the priesthood come in? As Ignatius recounts in his Autobiography, in 1537, ‘there in Venice those who were not ordained were ordained for mass and the nuncio who was then in Venice gave them faculties: he who was later called Cardinal Verallo. They were ordained under the title of poverty, with all making vows of chastity and poverty’.[2]
Note how and when things happened. First of all, one of the group, the Frenchman Pierre Favre, was already a priest, although he had not been when he met Ignatius and Francis Xavier in Paris back in 1529. Why was he ordained before the others? Quite simply because he had started his studies before them. He says as much in his Memorial. After a trip to Savoyto see his parents, ‘I returned to Paris,’ he writes, ‘to complete my theology studies; it was in 1534 and I was twenty-eight years old. I made the Exercises and was granted holy orders even though the title deed had not arrived; I said my first Mass on the Feast of Blessed Mary Magdalene (22nd July 1534), my advocate and that of all sinners’.[3] Favre tells us that it is thanks to Ignatius that he let go of his thoughts about marrying, or becoming a physician, lawyer, director, doctor of theology or monk. ‘As I said, the Lord delivered me from all these impulses by the consolations of His Spirit and He made me take the decision to become a priest so as to give myself entirely to His service.'[4] So Favre’s decision is linked not only to Ignatius’ influence but also to a firm desire to share his vocation and the way of life. The case of Favre illustrates that the idea of a priestly apostolate is established in this period.[5]
The ordination of all the other companions takes place during the course of a year spent waiting to travel to Jerusalem. The idea of putting themselves at the disposition of the Pope is still only a fallback. This is the moment, at the end of the studies, when the presbyterate is integrated into the group’s vocation as the normal and necessary outcome of their apostolic intention. In short, the companions become a group of priests prior to placing themselves at the disposal of the Pope and also before they take the decision to found a religious order. The first Jesuits were priests before they were religious. You cannot say that ordination is just added on to Jesuit religious life for form’s sake. The companions present themselves as ‘poor pilgrim priests’, a description which still evokes their intention of going to Jerusalem. For the moment, they continue as before with their preaching ministry in northern Italy. This fits in with the concrete pattern of the priestly ministry that they want to live out. But it emerges gradually that they are also hearing confessions.