The House of Ignatius

Saturday the 20th of July 2013 I am standing on the Piazza del Gesù in Rome before the eponymous church.

A place that has changed over the centuries

Rome is calm on this hot summer Saturday. The Italian exuberance seems to have come down for a moment. The broad facade of the church spans almost all the space embraced by the eyes
The layout of the site is no longer the same as in 1556, the year Ignatius of Loyola died: the church was built after his death and the house as well as the surrounding streets have changed.

Next to the church is a large building: it is the Casa Professa built between 1600 and 1605, after a large flood had threatened the foundation of the original house in 1598.

RP Acquaviva began the construction of the new house on the site of the previous one, while preserving the four rooms where Ignatius of Loyola lived between 1544 and 1556, during the last twelve years of his life.
They are like a jewel in the heart of the new building. In order to preserve them intact, vaulted reinforcements were placed underneath during the works.

The centre of the Society

I am very impressed to find myself in this place where Ignatius lived, prayed, worked and managed the Society. The latter enjoyed a strong and rapid growth, driven by his energy, his determination, his pragmatism, his intelligence, his commitment and faith.
In these four rooms, Ignatius also read and wrote an extensive correspondence.

From here, he led the Society as a commander on the bridge of a ship: the information sent by the companions from around the world arrived here and went out with his instructions to the four cardinal points. These four rooms were truly the nerve centre of the Society at that time.

To us, men and women of the twenty-first century, the common mail communication looks very slow. However, the dynamics of life were different in those days and rhythms were those of the tides, not those of the waves: One used to live, think and communicate in a long-term perspective rather than in a logic of immediacy.

The spirit of Ignatius, when considering the future, was probably considering the year as a time reference, while we expect our correspondents to answers within minutes or even seconds after sending our emails or our SMS.

However, when the means of communication differ, the way of communicating, the content of the communication and even the thinking patterns also differ: we do not say the same thing in a letter that will need six months to reach the recipient and in an email that our correspondent will receive a few seconds after we have sent it. It is difficult today to figure out this context.

Rome instead of Jerusalem

The initial idea of the Companions was not to go to Rome on August 15, 1534 when the seven of them found themselves at Montmartre (Paris) and pronounced the vows of chastity, poverty and the desire to go to Jerusalem for missionary work. It is only if the latter vow could not realize that they would offer their services to the Pope in Rome. However, this is the scenario that realized as the war between the Venetians and the Turks in the early sixteenth century had made the journey to Jerusalem impossible. Ignatius and two of his companions therefore left for Rome in November 1537.

In 1539 Ignatius exposed to the Pope his project of a new religious order. It was enacted in 1540 in a Bull in which the Society was born. The Companions thus met in Rome and the seat of the Company was established there and still is there.

The place

You have to climb the steps of a staircase to reach the «rooms of Ignatius.» The entrance is through the corridor built by Father General Claudio Acquaviva between 1600 and 1605.

The first room is a sort of vestibule. It overlooks another room where you can see along the side of the wall, a chair and two tables (not very ergonomic).

Along the opposite wall there is a narrow stone block surmounted by a bronze head. It is Ignatius’ head casted in bronze from his death mask. The position of the head is consistent with the size of Ignatius. I noticed that it was not very different from the size of our contemporaries, while the average human size at that time was much shorter than today.

You cannot help coming back to this bronze head and interrogate his face. My gaze moves away, but always comes back towards this fixed and yet so present face that calls me: « What would you say, dear Ignace, you visionary, if you came back amongst us, almost five centuries after your death? And what would we say ?».

There is no doubt that after five centuries of change, it would be difficult for us to be «on the same wavelength.» Ignatius today is our model, it seduces and energizes us five hundred years later. I heard myself murmuring: « Ignatius, I am with you, I look at you, I’m listening; talk to me, please.»

Let us return to the lobby and enter the chapel.
This is where Ignatius worked. On the wall is a picture of the Holy Family.

Ignatius often looked at it and prayed, as if he drew strength from it, this huge strength that he deployed to move the Society forward.

He had certainly known here moments of discouragement. In one corner, a quite simple chair: that is where Ignatius learned of the death of Francis Xavier in 1552 on the small island of Sancian close to Macao, off the coast of China. Ignace remained prostrate, in tears at the death of this companion of the early days.

And François-Xavier, at the time of his death too, thought of his companions. Before leaving for the Far East, he presented a small paper to his seven companions and asked them to write their name on it. And he kept this piece of paper that was always with him during his endless wanderings. And when in need of strength, he just looked at this little piece of paper …

Also in the chapel, on the opposite wall, in a niche, one reads the three Greek letters IHS that evokes the name of Jesus2.

It is also in this room that Ignatius himself left this earth: on the same side of the room, at the place of his bed, is a plate bearing the words « HIC OBIT IGNATIUS .» It is thus here that he passed away ! …

I seek his presence, surrounded by these objects, his clothes, his paintings that, like me, he looked at … and yet, it was a different world.

In the adjacent room in which you enter from the chapel, there are a few showcases; the ones that have impressed me most are those showing the chasuble of Ignatius and his shoes.

Pilgrims are sometimes equally pious and strange: pieces of the sole of his shoes are gone! The same with the door of the room, some parts of which have disappeared as well, taken away by pilgrims. It is unbelievable but … Visits are now arranged in advance and accompanied and all is now well protected.

I am looking for Ignatius and I realize, in this quiet and motionless place, that nothing has stopped: life moves on and a few men and women keep working tirelessly for a better world in the spirit of Ignatius.

I hear Ignatius’ voice that whispers to me : «Go ahead, do not stop, keep going, never stop, there is so much to be done. Until the last moment, work and plough to germinate seeds hidden in the earth and make the future of this world. Get Involved, relentlessly up and work to build the city3, because that is the reason you are on this earth.

I realize that I have not written much about the house, but there are only four very simple small rooms… However, they have raised my emotion and stimulated my mind. That’s what I wanted to share with you.