Íñigo López de Loyola was born in 1491 in the family tower-house at Loyola, in the Basque country. A courtier and soldier, he was wounded defending Pamplona against the French in May 1521. Carried home to Loyola, he asked for romances to pass the time and was given instead a life of Christ and a book of saints. By the time he could walk he had decided to give his life to God.
In 1522 he hung up his sword at the shrine of Montserrat and spent nearly a year at Manresa, much of it praying in a cave above the river, where he drafted the Spiritual Exercises, the month-long retreat that remains the Church's most used method of discernment. He studied in Paris, gathered companions including Francis Xavier, and in 1540 Paul III approved the Society of Jesus.
He governed the order from Rome until his death on July 31, 1556, and was canonized by Gregory XV in 1622 alongside Teresa of Ávila and Francis Xavier. His tomb is beneath the altar of the Church of the Gesù in Rome, a few minutes from the Pantheon.
