Society of Jesus

In 1534, Ignatius and six other young men, including Francis Xavier and Peter Faber, gathered and professed vows of poverty, chastity, and later obedience, including a special vow of obedience to the Pope in matters of mission direction and assignment. Ignatius' six companions were: Francisco Xavier from Navarre (modern Spain), Alfonso Salmeron, Diego Laínez, Nicolás Bobadilla from Castile (modern Spain), Peter Faber from Savoy, and Simão Rodrigues from Portugal.

Francis Xavier, S.J. (born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta; Latin Franciscus Xaverius; Basque: Frantzisko Xabierkoa; Spanish: Francisco Javier; Portuguese: Francisco Xavier; 7 April 1506 – 3 December 1552), was a Navarrese Catholic missionary who was a co-founder of the Society of Jesus.

It was founded by Ignatius of Loyola with the approval of Pope Paul III in 1540. On 15 August 1534, Ignatius of Loyola (born Íñigo López de Loyola), a Spaniard from the Basque city of Loyola, and six others mostly of Castilian origin, all students at the University of Paris, met in Montmartre outside Paris, in a crypt beneath the church of Saint Denis, now Saint Pierre de Montmartre, to pronounce the religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

23 October 1491 – 31 July 1556) was a Spanish Basque Catholic priest and theologian, who co-founded the religious order called the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and became its first Superior General at Paris in 1541.

In 1534, Ignatius and six other young men, including Francis Xavier and Peter Faber, gathered and professed vows of poverty, chastity, and later obedience, including a special vow of obedience to the Pope in matters of mission direction and assignment. Ignatius' six companions were: Francisco Xavier from Navarre (modern Spain), Alfonso Salmeron, Diego Laínez, Nicolás Bobadilla from Castile (modern Spain), Peter Faber from Savoy, and Simão Rodrigues from Portugal.

Saint Peter Faber (Pierre Lefevre or Favre, Petrus Faver) (13 April 1506 – 1 August 1546) was the first Jesuit priest and theologian, who was also a co-founder of the Society of Jesus.

The Society of Jesus is consecrated under the patronage of Madonna Della Strada, a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and it is led by a Superior General.

The Superior General of the Society of Jesus is the official title of the leader of the Society of Jesus – the Roman Catholic religious order which is also known as the Jesuits.

It was founded by Ignatius of Loyola with the approval of Pope Paul III in 1540.

He recognized new Catholic religious orders and societies such as the Jesuits, the Barnabites, and the Congregation of the Oratory.

The historic curia of Ignatius is now part of the Collegio del Gesù attached to the Church of the Gesù, the Jesuit mother church.

The Church of the Gesù (Chiesa del Gesù, ) is the mother church of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), a Catholic religious order.

In the United States the Jesuits have historical ties to 28 colleges and universities and 61 high schools.

The Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) is a consortium of the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities and two theological centers in the United States committed to advancing academic excellence by promoting and coordinating collaborative activities, sharing resources, and advocating and representing the work of Jesuit higher education at the national and international levels.

In September 2019, the general superior of the Jesuits, Arturo Sosa, estimated that by 2034 the number would decrease to about 10,000 Jesuits, with a much younger average age than in 2019, and with a shift away from Europe and into Latin America, Africa, and India.

Arturo Marcelino Sosa Abascal (born 12 November 1948) is the thirty-first and present Superior General of the Society of Jesus.

Ignatius' six companions were: Francisco Xavier from Navarre (modern Spain), Alfonso Salmeron, Diego Laínez, Nicolás Bobadilla from Castile (modern Spain), Peter Faber from Savoy, and Simão Rodrigues from Portugal.

Alfonso (Alphonsus) Salmerón (8 September 1515 – 13 February 1585) was a Spanish biblical scholar, a Catholic priest, and one of the first Jesuits.

In the United States the Jesuits have historical ties to 28 colleges and universities and 61 high schools.

The Jesuit Schools Network (JSN), formerly known as the Jesuit Secondary Education Association (JSEA), was founded in 1970 to address the unique needs of the Jesuit secondary school apostolate in the United States.

He composed the Spiritual Exercises to help others follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.

The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola (Latin original: Exercitia spiritualia), composed 1522–1524, are a set of Christian meditations, contemplations, and prayers written by Ignatius of Loyola, a 16th-century Spanish priest, theologian, and founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).

Ignatius' six companions were: Francisco Xavier from Navarre (modern Spain), Alfonso Salmeron, Diego Laínez, Nicolás Bobadilla from Castile (modern Spain), Peter Faber from Savoy, and Simão Rodrigues from Portugal.

Diego Laynez, S.J. (sometimes spelled Laínez) (Spanish: Diego Laynez), born in 1512 (Almazán, Spain) and died on 19 January 1565 (Rome), was a Spanish Jesuit priest and theologian of Jewish descent, and the second Superior General of the Society of Jesus.

The resentment was recorded by Jesuit José de Acosta of a conversation with the Archbishop of Santo Domingo.

José de Acosta (1539 or 1540 in Medina del Campo, Spain – February 15, 1600 in Salamanca, Spain) was a sixteenth-century Spanish Jesuit missionary and naturalist in Latin America.

Ignatius' six companions were: Francisco Xavier from Navarre (modern Spain), Alfonso Salmeron, Diego Laínez, Nicolás Bobadilla from Castile (modern Spain), Peter Faber from Savoy, and Simão Rodrigues from Portugal.

Nicolas Bobadilla (1511 – 23 September 1590) was one of the first Jesuits.

In 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the first Jesuit to be elected Pope, taking the name Pope Francis.

Francis is the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first pope from outside Europe since the Syrian Gregory III, who reigned in the 8th century.

The society is characterized by its ministries in the fields of missionary work, human rights, social justice and, most notably, higher education.

A Jesuit priest named Luigi Taparelli is typically credited with coining the term, and it spread during the revolutions of 1848 with the work of Antonio Rosmini-Serbati.

Second, they sent out missionaries across the globe to evangelize those peoples who had not yet heard the Gospel, founding missions in widely diverse regions such as modern-day Paraguay, Japan, Ontario, and Ethiopia.

Paraguay was the epicenter of the Jesuit Missions, where the Guaraní people were educated and introduced to Christianity and European culture under the direction of the Society of Jesus in Jesuit reductions, mainly during the 17th century.

On 15 August 1534, Ignatius of Loyola (born Íñigo López de Loyola), a Spaniard from the Basque city of Loyola, and six others mostly of Castilian origin, all students at the University of Paris, met in Montmartre outside Paris, in a crypt beneath the church of Saint Denis, now Saint Pierre de Montmartre, to pronounce the religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

According to the earliest biography of Saint Ignatius Loyola, the martyrium of Montmartre Abbey was the location at which the vows were taken that led to the founding of the Society of Jesus.

The Society of Jesus is consecrated under the patronage of Madonna Della Strada, a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and it is led by a Superior General.

Madonna Della Strada or Santa Maria Della Strada — the Italian for Our Lady of the Wayside, or Our Lady of the Good Road — is the name of an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, enshrined at the Church of the Gesù in Rome, mother church of the Society of Jesus religious order of the Roman Catholic Church and is a variation on the Eastern basilissa (imperial) type of icon.

Ignatius' six companions were: Francisco Xavier from Navarre (modern Spain), Alfonso Salmeron, Diego Laínez, Nicolás Bobadilla from Castile (modern Spain), Peter Faber from Savoy, and Simão Rodrigues from Portugal.

Simão Rodrigues de Azevedo (1510, Vouzela, Portugal - 15 June 1579, Lisbon), was a Portuguese Jesuit priest and one of the co-founders of the Society of Jesus.

In addition to the teachings of faith, the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum (1599) would standardize the study of Latin, Greek, classical literature, poetry, and philosophy as well as non-European languages, sciences, and the arts.

The Ratio atque Institutio Studiorum Societatis Iesu (The Official Plan for Jesuit Education), often abbreviated as Ratio Studiorum (Latin: Plan of Studies), was a document that standardized the globally influential system of Jesuit education in 1599.

The Society of Jesus (SJ; Societas Iesu) is a religious order of the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome.

Likewise, according to rank and authority, the abbot primate's "position with regard to the other abbots [throughout the world] is to be understood rather from the analogy of a primate in a hierarchy than from that of the general of an order like the Dominicans and Jesuits."

The Italian Jesuit Ippolito Desideri established a new Jesuit mission in Lhasa and Central Tibet (1716–21) and gained an exceptional mastery of Tibetan language and culture, writing a long and very detailed account of the country and its religion as well as treatises in Tibetan that attempted to refute key Buddhist ideas and establish the truth of Roman Catholic Christianity.

Ippolito Desideri or Hippolyte Desideri (21 December 1684 – 14 April 1733) was an Italian Jesuit missionary and traveller and the most famous of the early European missionaries to visit Tibet.

The Jesuits were founded just before the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and ensuing Counter-Reformation that would introduce reforms within the Catholic Church, and so counter the Protestant Reformation throughout Catholic Europe.

Leaders within the Roman Catholic Church responded with the Counter-Reformation, initiated by the Confutatio Augustana in 1530, the Council of Trent in 1545, the Jesuits in 1540, the Defensio Tridentinæ fidei in 1578, and also a series of wars and expulsions of Protestants that continued until the 19th century.

Jesuit priests such as Manuel da Nóbrega and José de Anchieta founded several towns in Brazil in the 16th century, including São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and were very influential in the pacification, religious conversion, and education of Indian nations.

Manuel da Nóbrega (old spelling Manoel da Nóbrega) (18 October 1517 – 18 October 1570) was a Portuguese Jesuit priest and first Provincial of the Society of Jesus in colonial Brazil.