Born Oct. 23, 1491 (?), in the castle of Loyola, Guipuzcoa Province; died July 31, 1556, in Rome. Founder of the order of the Jesuits (1534). Spanish petty nobleman.
In 1541, Ignatius of Loyola was elected “general” of the order for life. He turned it into an instrument of the Counter-Reformation. He worked out the order’s organizational and moral principles. In his book Spiritual Exercises he expounded a system of Jesuit education, the aim of which was to suppress the individual will of a person and turn him into an obedient tool of the church; he regarded all means as permissible for the sake of the “greater glory of god.” In 1622 the Catholic Church included him among its saints.