| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Combat | ATK 60 DEF 75 SPR 92 SPD 50 INT 90 |
| Rank | Founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) / Mystic / Reformer |
| Domain | Spiritual discipline, education, Counter-Reformation, discernment |
| Alignment | Holy / Counter-Reformation |
| Weakness | The Society of Jesus he founded became one of the most controversial orders in Catholic history -- dissolved by Pope Clement XIV in 1773 under political pressure, restored in 1814; see [Conspiracies #21](../Conspiracies.md#21-the-jesuits--black-pope) for the conspiracy lore around the "Black Pope" |
| Key Act | Wounded at the Siege of Pamplona (1521); during a long convalescence read the only books available -- a life of Christ and lives of the saints -- and converted. Wrote the *Spiritual Exercises*, a four-week structured program of meditation that remains a foundational tool in Catholic spiritual direction. Founded the Society of Jesus in 1540 with companions including Francis Xavier (who would carry the gospel to Asia). Built a global educational and missionary network -- the Jesuits became the intellectual shock troops of the Counter-Reformation |
| Source | his *Autobiography* (dictated 1553-1555); the *Spiritual Exercises*; the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus |
“Go and set the world on fire.” — attributed to Ignatius, sending Francis Xavier to the Indies
A Basque nobleman, soldier, and womanizer who took a French cannonball to the leg at Pamplona and emerged from his sickbed a different man. The Spiritual Exercises are a piece of psychological-religious technology that has shaped the inner lives of millions: a structured retreat that takes the exercitant through sin, the life of Christ, the Passion, and the Resurrection, applying methodical “discernment of spirits” throughout. The Jesuits became the educators of Europe (and later the world), the missionaries to China, Japan, Paraguay, and Canada, and the personal confessors to half the Catholic monarchs of the seventeenth century — which is what made them politically explosive enough to be suppressed. Francis (the current pope) is the first Jesuit ever elected.
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