Loyola, Ignatius

Ignatius Loyola (1491–1556) established a religious order in the Catholic Church—the Society of Jesus, that is, the Jesuits. Loyola initiated, and members of his order continued, the development of a network of colleges and schools to deliver Jesuit education. Jesuit education was founded on the ideal of education as training of both mind and spirit and that certain core studies were essential for all students.

Loyola was born in Spain. He was the youngest of 13 children in a family of low-level nobility. No records of his early years exist, though it is known that he was neither studious nor pious. He joined the military where his major activities were gambling, dueling, and casual romances. In 1521, Loyola was wounded, and during his recuperation, his religious conversion occurred.

Following his conversion, Loyola realized the importance of education and so returned to school, attending with much younger students. He went on to earn a degree at the University of Paris. When Loyola and his companions were unable to travel to the Holy Land to convert what they would consider infidels, they remained in Rome. During this time, the group decided to stay together and form a new congregation in the church devoted to obedience. Loyola summarized the group's discussions and asked a cardinal to submit them to the pope. Pope Paul III approved the group immediately, and in 1539, the Society of Jesus was formally initiated. Jesuits went wherever church officials indicated a need, successfully carrying God's word from city to city. As their influence increased, they founded colleges to provide training for youth of the church. In 1551, Loyola established the Roman College, which was used as the model for Jesuit colleges throughout the world. Loyola died in 1556. He was beatified by Pope Paul V on July 27, 1609, and canonized by Pope Gregory XV on March 12, 1622.

The Jesuits introduced reform to the Italian electives system by establishing “required credits.” This reform was introduced by Loyola and systematized some years later via the Ratio Studiorum. Jesuit education proposes to educate the whole person in the tradition of Christian humanism. A basic principle is that mind, will, and spirit must be trained as one. To accomplish this, schools operated by a variety of rules that governed the behavior of students, teachers, administrators of the school, and executives of the schools. According to T. Maynard, the Ratio is not the entirety of the curriculum but rather the foundation. The Jesuits insisted that every attempt be made to promote reasoning, intelligence, imagination, and observation instead of mastery of facts. They were the first to engage in systematic teacher training.

By 1773, the Jesuits had about 750 colleges. Currently, the Jesuit Secondary Education Association reports 46 member schools in the United States, serving over 40,000 students annually; the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities report 28 U.S. members.