Jesuits

TheSociety of Jesus(Latin:Societas Iesu; abbreviation:SJ), also known as theJesuit Orderor theJesuits(/ˈdʒɛʒuɪts,ˈdʒɛzju-/JEZH-oo-its,JEZ-ew-;Latin:Iesuitae),is areligious orderofclerics regularofpontifical rightfor men in theCatholic Churchheadquartered inRome. It was founded in 1540 byIgnatius of Loyolaand six companions, with the approval ofPope Paul III. Today, the Society of Jesus is engaged in evangelization and apostolic ministry in 112 countries. Jesuits work in education, research, and cultural pursuits. Jesuits also conduct retreats, minister in hospitals and parishes, sponsor direct social and humanitarian works, and promoteecumenical dialogue.
The Society of Jesus is consecrated under thepatronageofMadonna della Strada, a title of theBlessed Virgin Mary, and it is led by asuperior general.The headquarters of the society, itsgeneral curia, is in Rome.The historic curia of Ignatius is now part of theCollegio del Gesùattached to theChurch of the Gesù, the Jesuitmother church.
Members of the Society of Jesus make profession of "perpetual poverty, chastity, and obedience" and "promise a special obedience to the sovereign pontiff in regard to the missions." A Jesuit is expected to be totally available and obedient to his superiors, accepting orders to go anywhere in the world, even if required to live in extreme conditions. Ignatius, its leading founder, was a nobleman who had a military background. The opening lines of the founding document of the Society of Jesus accordingly declare that it was founded for "whoever desires to serve as a soldier of God,to strive especially for the defense and propagation of the faith, and for the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine".Jesuits are thus sometimes referred to colloquially as "God's soldiers","God's marines",or "the Company".The Society of Jesus participated in theCounter-Reformationand, later, in the implementation of theSecond Vatican Council.
Jesuitmissionariesestablished missions around the world from the 16th to the 18th century and had both successes and failures inChristianizingthe native peoples. The Jesuits have always been controversial within the Catholic Church and have frequently clashed with secular governments and institutions. Beginning in 1759, the Catholic Church expelled Jesuits from most countries in Europe and from European colonies.Pope Clement XIVofficiallysuppressed the orderin 1773. In 1814, the Church lifted the suppression.
Ignatius of Loyola, aBasquenobleman from thePyreneesarea of northern Spain, founded the society after discerning his spiritual vocation while recovering from a wound sustained in theBattle of Pamplona. He composed theSpiritual Exercisesto help others follow the teachings ofJesus Christ.
On 15 August 1534, Ignatius of Loyola (born Íñigo López de Loyola), a Spaniard from theBasquecity ofLoyola, and six others mostly ofCastilianorigin, all students at theUniversity of Paris,met inMontmartreoutside Paris, in a crypt beneath the church ofSaint Denis, nowSaint Pierre de Montmartre, to pronounce promises of poverty, chastity, and obedience.Ignatius' six companions were:Francisco XavierfromNavarre(modern Spain),Alfonso Salmeron,Diego Laínez,Nicolás BobadillafromCastile(modern Spain),Peter FaberfromSavoy, andSimão RodriguesfromPortugal.The meeting has been commemorated in theMartyrium of Saint Denis, Montmartre. They called themselves theCompañía de Jesús, and alsoAmigos en El Señoror "Friends in the Lord", because they felt "they were placed together by Christ." The name "company" had echoes of the military (reflecting perhaps Ignatius' background as Captain in the Spanish army) as well as of discipleship (the "companions" of Jesus). The Spanish "company" would be translated into Latin associetaslike insocius, a partner or comrade. From this came "Society of Jesus" (SJ) by which they would be known more widely.
Religious orders established in the medieval era were named after particular men:Francis of Assisi(Franciscans);Domingo de Guzmán, later canonized as Saint Dominic (Dominicans); andAugustine of Hippo(Augustinians). Ignatius of Loyola and his followers appropriated the name of Jesus for their new order, provoking resentment by other orders who considered it presumptuous. The resentment was recorded by JesuitJosé de Acostaof a conversation with the Archbishop of Santo Domingo.In the words of one historian: "The use of the name Jesus gave great offense. Both on the Continent and in England, it was denounced as blasphemous; petitions were sent to kings and to civil and ecclesiastical tribunals to have it changed; and evenPope Sixtus Vhad signed a Brief to do away with it." But nothing came of all the opposition; there were already congregations named after the Trinity and as "God's daughters".
In 1537, the seven travelled to Italy to seek papal approval for theirorder. Pope Paul III gave them a commendation, and permitted them to be ordained priests. These initial steps led to the official founding in 1540.
They were ordained inVeniceby thebishop of Arbe(24 June). They devoted themselves to preaching and charitable work inItaly. TheItalian War of 1536–1538renewed betweenCharles V, Holy Roman Emperor, Venice, the Pope, and theOttoman Empire, had rendered any journey toJerusalemimpossible.
Again in 1540, they presented the project to Paul III. After months of dispute, a congregation ofcardinalsreported favourably upon the Constitution presented, and Paul III confirmed the order through the bullRegimini militantis ecclesiae("To the Government of the Church Militant"), on 27 September 1540. This is the founding document of the Society of Jesus as an official Catholic religious order. Ignatius was chosen as the firstSuperior General. Paul III's bull had limited the number of its members to sixty. This limitation was removed through the bullExposcit debitumof Julius III in 1550.
In 1543,Peter Canisiusentered the Company. Ignatius sent him to Messina, where he founded the first Jesuit college inSicily.
Ignatius laid out his original vision for the new order in the "Formula of the Institute of the Society of Jesus",which is "the fundamental charter of the order, of which all subsequent official documents were elaborations and to which they had to conform".He ensured that his formula was contained in twopapal bullssigned by Pope Paul III in 1540 and by Pope Julius III in 1550.The formula expressed the nature, spirituality, community life, and apostolate of the new religious order. Its famous opening statement echoed Ignatius' military background:
In fulfilling the mission of the "Formula of the Institute of the Society", the first Jesuits concentrated on a few key activities. First, they founded schools throughout Europe. Jesuit teachers were trained in bothclassical studiesandtheology, and their schools reflected this. These schools taught with a balance of Aristotelian methods with mathematics.Second, they sent out missionaries across the globe toevangelizethose peoples who had not yet heard theGospel, founding missions in widely diverse regions such as modern-dayParaguay, Japan,Ontario, andEthiopia. One of the original seven arrived in India already in 1541.Finally, though not initially formed for the purpose, they aimed to stopProtestantismfrom spreading and to preserve communion withRomeand thepope. The zeal of the Jesuits overcame the movement toward Protestantism in thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealthand southernGermany.
Ignatius wrote the JesuitConstitutions, adopted in 1553, which created a centralised organization and stressed acceptance of any mission to which the pope might call them.His main principle became the unofficial Jesuit motto:Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam("For the greater glory of God"). This phrase is designed to reflect the idea that any work that is not evil can be meritorious for the spiritual life if it is performed with this intention, even things normally considered of little importance.
The Society of Jesus is classified among institutes as an order ofclerks regular, that is, a body of priests organized forapostolicwork, and following areligiousrule.
The termJesuit(of 15th-century origin, meaning "one who used too frequently or appropriated the name of Jesus") was first applied to the society in reproach (1544–1552).The term was never used by Ignatius of Loyola, but over time, members and friends of the society adopted the name with a positive meaning.
While the order is limited to men,Joanna of Austria, Princess of Portugal, favored the order and she is reputed to have been admitted surreptitiously under a male pseudonym.
The Jesuits were founded just before theCouncil of Trent(1545–1563) and ensuingCounter-Reformationthat would introduce reforms within the Catholic Church, and so counter theProtestant Reformationthroughout Catholic Europe.
Ignatius and the early Jesuits did recognize, though, that the hierarchical church was in dire need of reform. Some of their greatest struggles were against corruption,venality, and spiritual lassitude within the Catholic Church. Ignatius insisted on a high level of academic preparation for the clergy in contrast to the relatively poor education of much of the clergy of his time. The Jesuit vow against "ambitioning prelacies" can be seen as an effort to counteract another problem evidenced in the preceding century.
Ignatius and the Jesuits who followed him believed that the reform of the church had to begin with the conversion of an individual's heart. One of the main tools the Jesuits have used to bring about this conversion is the Ignatian retreat, called theSpiritual Exercises. During a four-week period of silence, individuals undergo a series of directedmeditationson the purpose of life and contemplations on the life of Christ. They meet regularly with aspiritual directorwho guides their choice of exercises and helps them to develop a more discerning love for Christ.
The retreat follows a "Purgative-Illuminative-Unitive" pattern in the tradition of the spirituality ofJohn Cassianand theDesert Fathers. Ignatius' innovation was to make this style of contemplativemysticismavailable to all people in active life. Further, he used it as a means of rebuilding the spiritual life of the church. The Exercises became both the basis for the training of Jesuits and one of the essential ministries of the order: giving the exercises to others in what became known as "retreats".
The Jesuits' contributions to the lateRenaissancewere significant in their roles both as a missionary order and as the first religious order to operate colleges and universities as a principal and distinct ministry.By the time of Ignatius' death in 1556, the Jesuits were already operating a network of 74 colleges on three continents. A precursor toliberal education, the Jesuit plan of studies incorporated the Classical teachings ofRenaissance humanisminto theScholasticstructure of Catholic thought.This method of teaching was important in the context of the Scientific Revolution, as these universities were open to teaching new scientific and mathematical methodology. Further, many important thinkers of the Scientific Revolution were educated by Jesuit universities.
In addition to the teachings offaith, the JesuitRatio Studiorum(1599) would standardize the study ofLatin,Greek, classical literature, poetry, and philosophy as well as non-European languages, sciences, and the arts. Furthermore, Jesuit schools encouraged the study ofvernacular literatureandrhetoric, and thereby became important centres for the training of lawyers and public officials.
The Jesuit schools played an important part in winning back to Catholicism a number of European countries which had for a time been predominantly Protestant, notablyPolandandLithuania. Today, Jesuit colleges and universities are located in over one hundred nations around the world. Under the notion that God can be encountered through created things and especially art, they encouraged the use of ceremony and decoration in Catholic ritual and devotion. Perhaps as a result of this appreciation for art, coupled with their spiritual practice of "finding God in all things", many early Jesuits distinguished themselves in the visual andperforming artsas well as in music. The theater was a form of expression especially prominent in Jesuit schools.
Jesuit priests often acted asconfessorsto kings during theearly modern period. They were an important force in the Counter-Reformation and in the Catholic missions, in part because their relatively loose structure (without the requirements of living and celebration of theLiturgy of Hoursin common) allowed them to be flexible and meet diverse needs arising at the time.
After much training and experience in theology, Jesuits went across the globe in search of converts to Christianity. Despite their dedication, they had little success in Asia, except in thePhilippines. For instance, early missions in Japan resulted in the government granting the Jesuits the feudal fiefdom ofNagasakiin 1580. This was removed in 1587 due to fears over their growing influence.Jesuits did, however, have much success in Latin America. Their ascendancy in societies in the Americas accelerated during the seventeenth century, wherein Jesuits created new missions inPeru,Colombia, andBolivia; as early as 1603, there were 345 Jesuit priests inMexicoalone.
Francis Xavier, one of the original companions ofLoyola, arrived inGoa(Portuguese India) in 1541 to carry out evangelical service in the Indies. In a 1545 letter to John III of Portugal, he requested anInquisitionto be installed in Goa to combat heresies like crypto-Judaism and crypto-Islam. UnderPortuguese royal patronage, Jesuits thrived in Goa and until 1759 successfully expanded their activities to education and healthcare. In 1594 they founded the first Roman-style academic institution in the East,St. Paul Jesuit CollegeinMacau, China. Founded byAlessandro Valignano, it had a great influence on the learning of Eastern languages (Chinese and Japanese) and culture by missionary Jesuits, becoming home to the first westernsinologistssuch asMatteo Ricci. Jesuit efforts in Goa were interrupted by theexpulsion of the Jesuitsfrom Portuguese territories in 1759 by the powerfulMarquis of Pombal, Secretary of State in Portugal.
The Portuguese JesuitAntónio de Andradefounded a mission in Western Tibet in 1624 (see also "Catholic Church in Tibet"). Two Jesuit missionaries,Johann GrueberandAlbert Dorville, reachedLhasa, in Tibet, in 1661. The Italian JesuitIppolito Desideriestablished a new Jesuit mission inLhasaandCentral Tibet(1716–21) and gained an exceptional mastery ofTibetanlanguage and culture, writing a long and very detailed account of the country and its religion as well as treatises in Tibetan that attempted to refute keyBuddhistideas and establish the truth of Catholic Christianity.
Jesuitmissionsin theAmericasbecame controversial in Europe, especially in Spain and Portugal where they were seen as interfering with the proper colonial enterprises of the royal governments. The Jesuits were often the only force standing between theIndigenousandslavery. Together throughout South America but especially in present-dayBrazilandParaguay, they formed Indigenous Christian city-states, called "reductions". These were societies set up according to an idealizedtheocraticmodel. The efforts of Jesuits likeAntonio Ruiz de Montoyato protect the natives from enslavement by Spanish and Portuguese colonizers would contribute to the call for the society's suppression. Jesuit priests such asManuel da NóbregaandJosé de Anchietafounded several towns in Brazil in the 16th century, includingSão PauloandRio de Janeiro, and were very influential in the pacification,religious conversion, and education of indigenous nations. They also built schools, organized people into villages, and created a writing system for the local languages of Brazil.José de Anchieta and Manuel da Nóbrega were the first Jesuits that Ignacio de Loyola sent to the Americas.
Jesuit scholars working in foreign missions were very dedicated in studying the local languages and strove to produce Latinizedgrammarsanddictionaries. This included: Japanese (seeNippo jisho, also known asVocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam, "Vocabulary of the Japanese Language", a Japanese–Portuguese dictionary written 1603);Vietnamese(Portuguese missionaries created theVietnamese alphabet,which was later formalized by Avignon missionaryAlexandre de Rhodeswith his 1651trilingual dictionary);Tupi(the main language of Brazil); and the pioneering study ofSanskritin the West byJean François Ponsin the 1740s.
Jesuit missionaries were active amongindigenous peoplesinNew Francein North America, many of them compiling dictionaries or glossaries of theFirst NationsandNative Americanlanguages they had learned. For instance, before his death in 1708,Jacques Gravier, vicar general of theIllinoisMissionin theMississippi Rivervalley, compiled aMiami–Illinois–Frenchdictionary, considered the most extensive among works of the missionaries.Extensive documentation was left in the form ofThe Jesuit Relations, published annually from 1632 until 1673.
Whereas Jesuits were active inBritainin the 16th century, due to thepersecution of Catholicsin the Elizabethan times, an English province was only established in 1623.The first pressing issue for early Jesuits in what today is theUnited Kingdomwas to establish places for training priests. After anEnglish Collegewas opened in Rome (1579), aJesuit seminarywas opened at Valladolid (1589), thenonein Seville (1592), which culminated in a place of study in Louvain (1614). This was the earliest foundation of what would later be calledHeythrop College.Campion Hall, founded in 1896, has been a presence withinOxford Universitysince then.
16th and 17th-century Jesuit institutions intended to train priests were hotbeds for the persecution of Catholics in Britain, where men suspected of being Catholic priests were routinely imprisoned, tortured, and executed. Jesuits were among those killed, includingthe namesakeof Campion Hall, as well as Brian Cansfield,Ralph Corbington, and many others. A number of them were canonized among theForty Martyrs of England and Wales.
Four Jesuit churches remain today inLondonalone, with three other places of worship remaining extant inEnglandand two inScotland.
The Jesuits first entered China through thePortuguesesettlement onMacau, where they settled onGreen Islandand foundedSt. Paul's College.
TheJesuit China missionsof the 16th and 17th centuries introduced Western science and astronomy,then undergoingits own revolution, to China. Thescientific revolutionbrought by the Jesuits coincided with a time when scientific innovation had declined in China:
For over a century, Jesuits such asMichele Ruggieri,Matteo Ricci,Diego de Pantoja,Philippe Couplet,Michal Boym, andFrançois Noëlrefined translations and disseminatedChinese knowledge,culture,history, andphilosophyto Europe. TheirLatinworks popularized the name "Confucius" and had considerable influence on theDeistsand otherEnlightenmentthinkers, some of whom were intrigued by the Jesuits' attempts to reconcileConfucian moralitywithCatholicism.
Upon the arrival of theFranciscansand other monastic orders, Jesuit accommodation of Chinese culture and rituals led to the long-runningChinese Rites controversy. Despite the personal testimony of theKangxi Emperorand many Jesuit converts thatChinese veneration of ancestorsandConfuciuswas a nonreligious token of respect,Pope Clement XI'spapal decreeCum Deus Optimusruled that such behavior constituted impermissible forms ofidolatryand superstition in 1704;hislegateTournonand Bishop Charles Maigrot of Fujian, tasked with presenting this finding to theKangxi Emperor, displayed such extreme ignorance that the emperor mandated the expulsion of Christian missionaries unable to abide by the terms of Ricci's Chinese catechism.Tournon'ssummary and automaticexcommunicationfor any violators of Clement's decree– upheld by the 1715bullEx Illa Die– led to the swift collapse of all the missions in China;the last Jesuits were finally expelled after 1721.
The first Jesuit school inIrelandwas established atLimerickby theapostolic visitorof theHoly See,David Wolfe. Wolfe had been sent to Ireland byPope Pius IVwith the concurrence of the third Jesuit superior general,Diego Laynez.He was charged with setting up grammar schools "as a remedy against the profound ignorance of the people".
Wolfe's mission in Ireland initially concentrated on setting the sclerotic Irish Church on a sound footing, introducing theTridentineReforms and finding suitable men to fill vacant sees. He established a house of religious women in Limerick known as the Menabochta ("poor women" ) and in 1565 preparations began for establishing a school at Limerick.
At his instigation,Richard Creagh, a priest of the Diocese of Limerick, was persuaded to accept the vacantArchdiocese of Armagh, and was consecrated at Rome in 1564.
This early Limerick school,Crescent College, operated in difficult circumstances. In April 1566,William Goodsent a detailed report to Rome of his activities via the Portuguese Jesuits. He informed the Jesuit superior general that he and Edmund Daniel had arrived at Limerick city two years beforehand and their situation there had been perilous. Both had arrived in the city in very bad health, but had recovered due to the kindness of the people.
They established contact with Wolfe, but were only able to meet with him at night, as the English authorities were attempting to arrest the legate. Wolfe charged them initially with teaching to the boys of Limerick, with an emphasis on religious instruction, and Good translated the catechism from Latin into English for this purpose. They remained in the city for eight months, before moving toKilmallockin December 1565 under the protection of the Earl of Desmond, where they lived in more comfort than the primitive conditions they experienced in the city. However they were unable to support themselves at Kilmallock and three months later they returned to the city in Easter 1566, and strangely set up their house in accommodation owned by the Lord Deputy of Ireland, which was conveyed to them by certain influential friends.
They recommenced teaching at Castle Lane, and imparting the sacraments, though their activities were restricted by the arrival of Royal Commissioners. Good reported that as he was an Englishman, English officials in the city cultivated him and he was invited to dine with them on a number of occasions, though he was warned to exercise prudence and avoid promoting thePetrine primacyand the priority of theMassamongst thesacramentswith his students and congregation, and that his sermons should emphasize obedience to secular princes if he wished to avoid arrest.
The number of scholars in their care was very small. An early example of a school play in Ireland is sent in one of Good's reports, which was performed on the Feast of St. John in 1566. The school was conducted in one large aula, but the students were divided into distinct classes. Good gives a highly detailed report of the curriculum taught and the top class studied the first and second parts ofJohannes Despauterius's Commentarli grammatici, and read a few letters of Cicero or the dialogues of Frusius (André des Freux, SJ). The second class committed Donatus' texts in Latin to memory and read dialogues as well as works by Ēvaldus Gallus. Students in the third class learned Donatus by heart, though translated into English rather than through Latin. Young boys in the fourth class were taught to read. Progress was slow because there were too few teachers to conduct classes simultaneously.
In the spirit of Ignatius'Roman Collegefounded 14 years before, no fee was requested from pupils, though as a result the two Jesuits lived in very poor conditions and were very overworked with teaching and administering the sacraments to the public. In late 1568 the Castle Lane School, in the presence of Daniel and Good, was attacked and looted by government agents sent by SirThomas Cusackduring the pacification of Munster.The political and religious climate had become more uncertain in the lead up toPope Pius V's formal excommunication of QueenElizabeth I, which resulted in a new wave of repression of Catholicism in England and Ireland. At the end of 1568 the Anglican Bishop of Meath,Hugh Brady, was sent to Limerick charged with a Royal Commission to seek out and expel the Jesuits. Daniel was immediately ordered to quit the city and went to Lisbon, where he resumed his studies with the Portuguese Jesuits.Good moved on toClonmel, before establishing himself atYoughaluntil 1577.
In 1571, after Wolfe had been captured and imprisoned atDublin Castle, Daniel persuaded the Portuguese Province to agree a surety for the ransom of Wolfe, who was quickly banished on release. Daniel returned to Ireland the following year, but was immediately captured and incriminating documents were found on his person, which were taken as proof of his involvement with the rebellious cousin of theEarl of Desmond,James Fitzmauriceand a Spanish plot.He was removed from Limerick, taken to Cork "just as if he were a thief or noted evildoer". After being court-martialled by the Lord President of Munster, SirJohn Perrot, he was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered for treason and refused pardon in return for swearing theAct of Supremacy. His execution was carried out on 25 October 1572 and a report of it was sent by Fitzmaurice to the Jesuit Superior General in 1576, where he said that Daniel was "cruelly killed because of me".
With Daniel dead and Wolfe dismissed, the Irish Jesuit foundation suffered a severe setback. Good is recorded as resident at Rome by 1577 and in 1586 the seizure of Earl of Desmond's estates resulted in a new permanent Protestant plantation in Munster, making the continuation of the Limerick school impossible for a time. It was not until the early 1600s that the Jesuit mission could again re-establish itself in the city, though the Jesuits kept a low profile existence in lodgings here and there. For instance a mission led by Fr. Nicholas Leinagh re-established itself at Limerick in 1601,though the Jesuit presence in the city numbered no more than 1 or 2 at a time in the years immediately following.
In 1604, the Lord President of Munster, SirHenry Brouncker- at Limerick, ordered all Jesuits from the city and Province, and offered £7 to anyone willing to betray a Jesuit priest to the authorities, and £5 for a seminarian.Jesuit houses and schools throughout the province, in the years thereafter, were subject to periodic crackdown and the occasional destruction of schools, imprisonment of teachers and the levying of heavy money penalties on parents are recorded in publications of the time. In 1615-17 the Royal Visitation Books, written up byThomas Jones, theAnglican Archbishop of Dublin, records the suppression of Jesuit schools atWaterford, Limerick andGalway.Nevertheless, in spite of this occasional persecution, the Jesuits were able to exert a degree of discreet influence within the province and in Limerick. For instance in 1606, largely through their efforts, a Catholic named Christopher Holywood was elected Mayor of the city.Four years earlier the resident Jesuit had raised a sum of "200 cruzados" for the purpose of founding a hospital in the city, though the project was disrupted by a severe outbreak of plague and repression by the Lord President
The principal activities of the order within the city at this time were devoted to preaching, administration of the sacraments and teaching. The school opened and closed intermittently in or around the area of Castle Lane, near Lahiffy's lane. During demolition work stones marked I.H.S., 1642 and 1609 were, in the 19th century, found inserted in a wall behind a tan yard near St Mary's Chapel which, according to Lenihan, were thought to mark the site of an early Jesuit school and oratory. This building, at other times, had also functioned as a dance house and candle factory.
For much of the 17th century, the Limerick Jesuit foundation established a more permanent and stable presence and the Jesuit Annals record a 'flourishing' school at Limerick in the 1640s.During the Confederacy the Jesuits had been able to go about their business unhindered and were invited to preach publicly from the pulpit of St. Mary's Cathedral on 4 occasions. CardinalGiovanni Rinucciniwrote to the Jesuit general in Rome praising the work of the Rector of the Limerick College, Fr. William O'Hurley, who was aided by Fr. Thomas Burke.However just a few years later, during the Protectorate era, only 18 of the Jesuits resident in Ireland managed to avoid capture by the authorities. Lenihan records that the Limerick Crescent College in 1656 moved to a hut in the middle of a bog which was difficult for the authorities to find. This foundation was headed up by Fr. Nicholas Punch who was aided by Frs. Maurice Patrick, Piers Creagh and James Forde and the school attracted a large number of students from around the locality.
At the Restoration ofCharles II, the school moved back to Castle Lane, and remained largely undisturbed for the next 40 years, until the surrender of the city to Williamite forces in 1692. In 1671, Dr. James Douley was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Limerick and during his visitation to the diocese reported to the Holy See that the Jesuits had a house and "taught schools with great fruit, instructing the youth in the articles of faith and good morals."Douley also noted that this and other Catholic schools operating in the Diocese were also attended by local Protestants.
The Jesuit presence in Ireland, in the so-called Penal era after the Battle of the Boyne, ebbed and flowed. By 1700 they were only 6 or 7, recovering to 25 by 1750. Small Jesuit houses and schools existed at Athlone, Carrick-on-Suir, Cashel, Clonmel, Kilkenny, Waterford, New Ross, Wexford, and Drogheda, as well as Dublin and Galway. At Limerick there appears to have been a long hiatus following the defeat of the Jacobite forces and Begley states that Fr. Thomas O'Gorman was the first Jesuit to return to Limerick after the siege, arriving in 1728 and he took up residence in Jail Lane, near the Castle in the Englishtown. There he opened a school to "impart the rudiments of the classics to the better class youth of the city."O'Gorman left in 1737 and was succeeded by Fr. John McGrath.Next came Fr. James McMahon, who was a nephew of the Primate of Armagh,Hugh MacMahon. McMahon lived at Limerick for thirteen years until his death in 1751. In 1746 Fr Joseph Morony was sent from Bordeaux to join McMahon and the others.Morony remained at the Jail Lane site teaching at what Begley states was a "high class school" until 1773 when he was ordered to close the school and oratory following thepapal suppression of the Society of Jesus,208 years after its foundation by Wolfe. Morony then went to live in Dublin and worked as a secular priest.
Despite the efforts of the Castle authorities and English government the Limerick school managed to survive theProtestant Reformation, theCromwellian invasionandWilliamite Wars, and subsequentPenal Laws. It was finally forced to close, not for religious or confessional reasons, but due to the political difficulties of the Jesuit Order elsewhere.
Following the restoration of the Society of Jesus in 1814, the Jesuits gradually re-established a number of their schools throughout the country, starting with foundations at Kildare and Dublin. They returned to Limerick at the invitation of the Bishop of Limerick,John Ryan, in 1859 and also re-established a school at Galway in the same year.
During the French colonisation ofNew Francein the 17th century, Jesuits played an active role in North America.Samuel de Champlainestablished the foundations of the French colony at Québec in 1608. The native tribes that inhabited modern day Ontario, Québec, and the areas around Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay were the Montagnais, the Algonquins, and theHuron.Champlain believed that these had souls to be saved, so in 1614 he obtained theRecollects, a reform branch of the Franciscans in France, to convert the native inhabitants.In 1624 the French Recollects realized the magnitude of their taskand sent a delegate to France to invite the Society of Jesus to help with this mission. The invitation was accepted, and JesuitsJean de Brébeuf,Énemond Massé, andCharles Lalemantarrived in Quebec in 1625.Lalemant is considered to have been the first author of one of theJesuit Relations of New France, which chronicled their evangelization during the 17th century.
The Jesuits became involved in theHuron missionin 1626 and lived among the Huron peoples. Brébeuf learned the native language and created the first Huron language dictionary. Outside conflict forced the Jesuits to leave New France in 1629 whenQuebecwassurrenderedto theEnglish. In 1632, Quebec was returned to the French under theTreaty of Saint Germain-en-Layeand the Jesuits returned to theHuron territory.After a series of epidemics of European-introduced diseases beginning in 1634, some Huron began to mistrust the Jesuits and accused them of being sorcerers casting spells from their books.
In 1639, JesuitJerome Lalemantdecided that the missionaries among the Hurons needed a local residence and establishedSainte-Marienear present-dayMidland, Ontario, which was meant to be a replica of European society.It became the Jesuit headquarters and an important part of Canadian history. Throughout most of the 1640s the Jesuits had modest success, establishing five chapels in Huronia and baptising more than one thousand Huron out of a population which may have exceeded 20,000 before the epidemics of the 1630s.However, theIroquoisofNew York, rivals of the Hurons, grew jealous of the Hurons' wealth and control of the fur trade system and attacked Huron villages in 1648. They killed missionaries and burned villages, and the Hurons scattered. Both de Brébeuf and Gabriel Lalemant were tortured and killed in the Iroquois raids; for this, they have been canonized as martyrs in the Catholic Church.
The JesuitPaul Ragueneauburned downSainte-Marieinstead of allowing the Iroquois the satisfaction of destroying it. By late June 1649, the French and some Christian Hurons built Sainte-Marie II onChristian Island(Isle de Saint-Joseph). However, facing starvation, lack of supplies, and constant threats of Iroquois attack, the small Sainte-Marie II was abandoned in June 1650; the remaining Christian Hurons and Jesuits departed for Quebec andOttawa.As a result of the Iroquois raids and outbreak of disease, many missionaries, traders, and soldiers died.Today, the Huron tribe, also known as theWyandot, have a First Nations reserve in Quebec, Canada, and three major settlements in the United States.
After the collapse of theHuron nation, the Jesuits undertook the task of converting the Iroquois, something they had attempted in 1642 with little success. In 1653 the Iroquois nation had a fallout with the Dutch. They then signed a peace treaty with the French and a mission was established. The Iroquois soon turned on the French again. In 1658, the Jesuits were having little success and were under constant threat of being tortured or killed,but continued their effort until 1687 when they abandoned their permanent posts in the Iroquois homeland.
By 1700, Jesuits turned to maintaining Quebec,Montreal, and Ottawa without establishing new posts.During theSeven Years' War, Quebec wascaptured by the Britishin 1759 and New France came under British control. The British barred the immigration of more Jesuits to New France, and by 1763, only 21 Jesuits were stationed in New France. By 1773 only 11 Jesuits remained. During the same year the British crown declared that the Society of Jesus in New France was dissolved.
The dissolution of the order left in place substantial estates and investments, amounting to an income of approximately £5,000 a year, and theCouncil for the Affairs of the Province of Quebec, later succeeded by theLegislative Assembly of Quebec, assumed the task of allocating the funds to suitable recipients, chiefly schools.
The Jesuit mission in Quebec was re-established in 1842. There were a number of Jesuit colleges founded in the decades following; one of these colleges evolved into present-dayLaval University.
In the United States, the order is best known for itsmissions to the Native Americansin the early 17th century, itsnetwork of colleges and universities, and (in Europe before 1773) its politically conservative role in the CatholicCounter Reformation.
The Society of Jesus, in the United States, is organized into geographic provinces, each of which being headed by aprovincial superior. Today, there are four Jesuit provinces operating in the United States: the USAEast, USACentralandSouthern, USAMidwest, and USAWestProvinces. At their height, there were ten provinces. Though there had been mergers in the past, a major reorganization of the provinces began in early 21st century, with the aim of consolidating into four provinces by 2020.
TheChurch of the Society of Jesus(Spanish:La Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús), known colloquially asla Compañía, is a Jesuit church inQuito, Ecuador. It is among the best-known churches in Quito because of its large centralnave, which is profusely decorated withgold leaf,gildedplaster and wood carvings. Inspired by twoRomanJesuit churches – theChiesa del Gesù(1580) and theChiesa di Sant'Ignazio di Loyola(1650) –la Compañíais one of the most significant works ofSpanish Baroque architectureinSouth Americaand Quito's most ornate church.
Over the 160 years of its construction, the architects ofla Compañíaincorporated elements of four architectural styles, although theBaroqueis the most prominent.Mudéjar(Moorish) influence is seen in the geometrical figures on the pillars; theChurrigueresquecharacterizes much of the ornate decoration, especially in the interior walls; finally theNeoclassical styleadorns the Chapel of Saint Mariana de Jesús (in early years a winery).
The Jesuits inNew Spaindistinguished themselves in several ways. They had high standards for acceptance to the order and many years of training. They attracted the patronage of elite families whose sons they educated in rigorous newly founded Jesuitcolegios("colleges"), includingColegio de San Pedro y San Pablo,Colegio de San Ildefonso, and theColegio de San Francisco Javier, Tepozotlan. Those same elite families hoped that a son with avocationto the priesthood would be accepted as a Jesuit. Jesuits were also zealous in evangelization of the indigenous, particularly on the northern frontiers.
To support theircolegiosand members of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits acquired landed estates that were run with the best-practices for generating income in that era. A number of these haciendas were donated by wealthy elites. The donation of a hacienda to the Jesuits was the spark igniting a conflict between 17th-century BishopDon Juan de PalafoxofPueblaand the Jesuitcolegioin that city. Since the Jesuits resisted paying the tithe on their estates, this donation effectively took revenue out of the church hierarchy's pockets by removing it from the tithe rolls.
Many of Jesuit haciendas were huge, with Palafox asserting that just two colleges owned 300,000 head of sheep, whose wool was transformed locally in Puebla to cloth; six sugar plantations worth a million pesos and generating an income of 100,000 pesos.The immense Jesuit hacienda of Santa Lucía producedpulque, the alcoholic drink made from fermentedagavesap whose main consumers were the lower classes and Indigenous peoples in Spanish cities. Although most haciendas had a free work force of permanent or seasonal labourers, the Jesuit haciendas in Mexico had a significant number of enslaved people of African descent.
The Jesuits operated their properties as an integrated unit with the larger Jesuit order; thus revenues from haciendas funded theircolegios. Jesuits did significantly expand missions to the Indigenous in the northern frontier area and a number were martyred, but the crown supported those missions.Mendicant ordersthat had real estate were less economically integrated, so that some individual houses were wealthy while others struggled economically. TheFranciscans, who were founded as an order embracing poverty, did not accumulate real estate, unlike theAugustiniansandDominicansin Mexico.
The Jesuits engaged in conflict with the episcopal hierarchy over the question of payment of tithes, the ten percent tax on agriculture levied on landed estates for support of the church hierarchy from bishops and cathedral chapters to parish priests. Since the Jesuits were the largest religious order holding real estate, surpassing the Dominicans and Augustinians who had accumulated significant property, this was no small matter.They argued that they were exempt, due to special pontifical privileges.Bishop De Palafox took on the Jesuits over this matter and was so soundly defeated that he was recalled to Spain, where he became the bishop of the minorDiocese of Osma.
As elsewhere in the Spanish empire, the Jesuits were expelled from Mexico in 1767. Their haciendas were sold off and theircolegiosandmissions in Baja Californiawere taken over by other orders.Exiled Mexican-born JesuitFrancisco Javier Clavijerowrote an important history of Mexico while in Italy, a basis forcreolepatriotism.Andrés Cavoalso wrote an important text on Mexican history thatCarlos María de Bustamantepublished in the early 19th century.An earlier Jesuit who wrote about the history of Mexico was Diego Luis de Motezuma (1619–99), a descendant of theAztecmonarchs ofTenochtitlan. Motezuma'sCorona mexicana, o Historia de los nueve Motezumaswas completed in 1696. He "aimed to show that Mexican emperors were a legitimate dynasty in the 17th-century in the European sense".
The Jesuits were allowed to return to Mexico in 1840 when GeneralAntonio López de Santa Annawas once more president of Mexico. Their re-introduction to Mexico was "to assist in the education of the poorer classes and much of their property was restored to them".
The Jesuits arrived in theViceroyalty of Peruby 1571; it was a key area of theSpanish Empire, with not only dense indigenous populations but also huge deposits of silver atPotosí. A major figure in the first wave of Jesuits wasJosé de Acosta(1540–1600), whose bookHistoria natural y moral de las Indias(1590) introduced Europeans to Spain's American empire via fluid prose and keen observation and explanation, based on 15 years in Peru and some time inNew Spain(Mexico). Viceroy of PeruDon Francisco de Toledourged the Jesuits to evangelize theIndigenous peoples of Peru, wanting to put them in charge of parishes, but Acosta adhered to the Jesuit position that they were not subject to the jurisdiction of bishops and to catechize in Indigenous parishes would bring them into conflict with the bishops. For that reason, the Jesuits in Peru focused on education of elite men rather than the indigenous populations.
To minister to newly arrived African slaves,Alonso de Sandoval(1576–1651) worked at the port ofCartagena de Indias. Sandoval wrote about this ministry inDe instauranda Aethiopum salute(1627),describing how he and his assistantPeter Claver, later canonized, met slave transport ships in the harbour, went below decks where 300–600 slaves were chained, and gave physical aid with water, while introducing the Africans to Christianity. In his treatise, he did not condemn slavery or the ill-treatment of slaves, but sought to instruct fellow Jesuits to this ministry and describe how he catechized the slaves.
Rafael Ferrerwas the first Jesuit ofQuitoto explore and found missions in the upperAmazonregions ofSouth Americafrom 1602 to 1610, which belonged to theAudiencia(high court) of Quito that was a part of theViceroyalty of Peruuntil it was transferred to the newly createdViceroyalty of New Granadain 1717. In 1602, Ferrer began to explore the Aguarico, Napo, and Marañon rivers (Sucumbios region, in what is today Ecuador and Peru), and between 1604 and 1605 set up missions among the Cofane natives. He was martyred by an apostate native in 1610.
In 1639, the Audiencia of Quito organized an expedition to renew its exploration of the Amazon river and the Quito Jesuit (Jesuita Quiteño)Cristóbal de Acuñawas a part of this expedition. The expedition disembarked from the Napo river 16 February 1639 and arrived in what is todayPará, Brazil, on the banks of the Amazon river on 12 December 1639. In 1641, Acuña published in Madrid a memoir of his expedition to the Amazon river entitledNuevo Descubrimiento del gran rio de las Amazonas, which for academics became a fundamental reference on the Amazon region.
In 1637, the Jesuits Gaspar Cugia and Lucas de la Cueva from Quito began establishing theMainas missionsin territories on the banks of theMarañón River, around thePongo de Mansericheregion, close to the Spanish settlement ofBorja. Between 1637 and 1652 there were 14 missions established along theMarañón Riverand its southern tributaries, theHuallagaand theUcayalirivers. Jesuit de la Cueva and Raimundo de Santacruz opened up two new routes of communication with Quito, through thePastazaandNaporivers.
Between 1637 and 1715,Samuel Fritzfounded 38 missions along the length of the Amazon river, between the Napo and Negro rivers, that were called the Omagua Missions. These missions were continually attacked by the BrazilianBandeirantesbeginning in the year 1705. In 1768, the only Omagua mission that was left was San Joaquin de Omaguas, since it had been moved to a new location on the Napo river away from the Bandeirantes.
In the immense territory of Maynas, the Jesuits of Quito made contact with a number of indigenous tribes which spoke 40 different languages, and founded a total of 173 Jesuit missions encompassing 150,000 inhabitants. Because of the constant epidemics (smallpox and measles) and warfare with other tribes and theBandeirantes, the total number of Jesuit Missions were reduced to 40 by 1744. The Jesuit missions offered the Indigenous people Christianity, iron tools, and a small degree of protection from the slavers and the colonists. In exchange, the Indigenous had to submit to Jesuit discipline and adopt, at least superficially, a lifestyle foreign to their experience. The population of the missions was only sustained by frequent expeditions into the jungle by Jesuits, soldiers, and Christian Indians to capture Indigenous people and force them to return or to settle in the missions.At the time when the Jesuits were expelled from Spanish America in 1767, the Jesuits registered 36 missions run by 25 Jesuits in the Audiencia of Quito – 6 in the Napo and Aguarico Missions and 19 in the Pastaza and Iquitos Missions, with a population at 20,000 inhabitants.
The Guaraní people of eastern Paraguay and neighboring Brazil and Argentina were in crisis in the early 17th century. Recurrent epidemics of European diseases had reduced their population by up 50 percent and the forced labor of the encomiendas by the Spanish and mestizo colonists had made virtual slaves of many. Franciscan missionaries began establishing missions calledreductionsin the 1580s.The first Jesuits arrived in Asunción in 1588 and founded their first mission (or reduction) ofSan Ignacio Guazúin 1609. The objectives of the Jesuits were to make Christians of the Guaraní, impose European values and customs (which were regarded as essential to a Christian life), and isolate and protect the Guaraní from European colonists and slavers.
In addition to recurrent epidemics, the Guaraní were threatened by the slave-raidingBandeirantesfrom Brazil, who captured natives and sold them as slaves to work in sugarplantationsor as concubines and household servants. Having depleted native populations nearSão Paulo, they discovered the richly populated Jesuit missions. Initially, the missions had few defenses against the slavers and thousands of Guaraní were captured and enslaved.
Beginning in 1631, the Jesuits moved their missions from theGuayráprovince (present day Brazil and Paraguay), about 500 km (310 miles) southwest to the three borders region of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil. About 10,000 of 30,000 Guaraní in the missions chose to accompany the Jesuits. In 1641 and 1642, armed by the Jesuits, Guaraní armies defeated the Bandeirantes and ended the worst of the slave trade in their region. From this point on the Jesuit missions enjoyed growth and prosperity, punctuated by epidemics. At the peak of their importance in 1732, the Jesuits presided over 141,000 Guaraní (including a sprinkling of other peoples) who lived in about 30 missions.
The opinions of historians differ with regard to the Jesuit missions. The missions are much-romanticized with the Guaraní portrayed as innocent children of nature and the Jesuits as their wise and benevolent guides to an earthly utopia. "Proponents...highlight that the Jesuits protected the Indians from exploitation and preserved the Guaraní language and other aspects of indigenous culture.""By means of religion," wrote the 18th century philosopherJean d'Alembert, "the Jesuits established a monarchical authority in Paraguay, founded solely on their powers of persuasion and on their lenient methods of government. Masters of the country, they rendered happy the people under their sway."Voltairecalled the Jesuit missions "a triumph of humanity".
Detractors say that "the Jesuits took away the Indians' freedom, forced them to radically change their lifestyle, physically abused them, and subjected them to disease." Moreover, the missions were inefficient and their economic success "depended on subsidies from the Jesuit order, special protection and privileges from the Crown, and the lack of competition"The Jesuits are portrayed as "exploiters" who "sought to create a kingdom independent of the Spanish and Portuguese Crowns."
TheComunero Revolt(1721 to 1735) was a serious protest by Spanish and mestizo Paraguayans against the Jesuit missions. The residents of Paraguay violently protested the pro-Jesuit government of Paraguay, Jesuit control of Guaraní labor, and what they regarded as unfair competition for the market for products such asyerba mate. Although the revolt ultimately failed and the missions remained intact, the Jesuits were expelled from institutions they had created inAsunción.In 1756, the Guaraní protested the relocation of seven missions, fighting (and losing) a brief war with both the Spanish and Portuguese. The Jesuits were accused of inciting the Guaraní to rebel.In 1767,Charles III of Spain(1759–88) expelled the Jesuits from the Americas. The expulsion was part of an effort in theBourbon Reformsto assert more Spanish control over its American colonies.In total, 78 Jesuits departed from the missions leaving behind 89,000 Guaraní in 30 missions.
The Jesuits were among the original five Catholic religious orders, alongside theAugustinians,Franciscans,DominicansandAugustinian Recollects, who evangelized the Philippines in support of Spanish colonization.The Jesuits worked particularly hard in converting theMuslimsofMindanaoandLuzonfromIslamto Christianity, in which case, they were successful among the cities ofZamboangaandManila.Zamboangain particular was run like the Jesuit reductions in Paraguay and housed a large population of Peruvian and Latin American immigrants whereasManilaeventually became the capital of the Spanish colony.
In addition to missionary work, the Jesuits compiled artifacts and chronicled the precolonial history and culture of the Philippines. Jesuit chroniclerPedro Chirinochronicled the history of theKedatuan of Madja-asinPanayand its war against Rajah Makatunao ofSarawakas well as the histories of otherVisayan kingdoms.Meanwhile, another Jesuit,Francisco Combés, chronicled the history of the Venice of the Visayas, theKedatuan of Dapitan, its temporary conquest by theSultanate of Ternate, its re-establishment in Mindanao and its alliance against the Sultanates of Ternate and Lanao as vassals under Christian Spain.
The Jesuits also established the first missions inHindu-dominatedButuan, to convert it to Christianity.The Jesuits also founded many towns, farms, haciendas, educational institutes, libraries, and anobservatoryin the Philippines.The Jesuits were instrumental in the sciences of medicine, botany, zoology, astronomy and seismology. They trained the Philippines' second saint,Pedro Calungsod, who was martyred inGuamalongside the Jesuit priestDiego Luis de San Vitores.
The eventual temporary suppression of the Jesuits due their role in anti-colonial and anti-slavery revolts among the Paraguay reductions,alongside cooperation with theRecollects, allowed their vacated parishes to be put under control by the local nationalistic diocesan clergy; the martyrdom of three of them, the diocesan priests known asGomburza,inspiredJosé Rizal(also Jesuit-educated upon the restoration of the order), who became the Philippines' national hero. He successfully started thePhilippine Revolutionagainst Spain.
The Jesuits largely discredited theFreemasons, who claimed responsibility for theAmericanandFrench Revolutions, by reverting Jose Rizal from Freemasonry back to Catholicism.They argued that since the Philippine Revolution was inspired by the allegedly Masonic ideals behind the French and American revolutions, the French and American Freemasons themselves betrayed their own founding ideals when the American Freemasons annexed the Philippines in thePhilippine-American Warand the French Freemasons assented to theTreaty of Paris (1898).
In 1953, after being expelled fromChinaby theCommunists, the Jesuits relocated their organization's nexus in Asia from China to the Philippines and brought along a sizeableChinese diaspora.The Jesuits currently play a pivotal role in the nation-building ofthe Philippineswith its variousAteneosand educational institutes training the country's intellectual elites.
Tomé de Sousa, firstGovernor General of Brazil, brought the first group of Jesuits to the colony. The Jesuits were officially supported by theKing, who instructedTomé de Sousato give them all the support needed to Christianize the indigenous peoples.
The first Jesuits, guided byManuel da Nóbrega, Juan de Azpilcueta Navarro, Leonardo Nunes, and laterJosé de Anchieta, established the first Jesuit missions inSalvadorand inSão Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga, the settlement that gave rise to the city ofSão Paulo. Nóbrega and Anchieta were instrumental in the defeat of the French colonists ofFrance Antarctiqueby managing to pacify theTamoionatives, who had previously fought the Portuguese. The Jesuits took part in the foundation of the city ofRio de Janeiroin 1565.
The success of the Jesuits in converting the Indigenous peoples is linked to their efforts to understand the native cultures, especially their languages. The first grammar of theTupilanguage was compiled by José de Anchieta and printed inCoimbrain 1595. The Jesuits often gathered the natives in communities (theJesuit reductions), where the natives worked for the community and were evangelised.
The Jesuits had frequent disputes with other colonists who wanted to enslave the natives. The action of the Jesuits saved many natives from being enslaved by Europeans, but also disturbed their ancestral way of life and inadvertently helped spread infectious diseases against which the natives had no natural defenses. Slave labor and trade were essential for the economy of Brazil and other American colonies, and the Jesuits usually did object to the enslavement of African peoples, criticized the conditions of slavery.In cases where individual Jesuit priests criticized the institution of African slavery, they were censored and sent back to Europe.
The suppression of the Jesuits alienated the colonial empires from the natives they governed in the Americas and Asia, as the Jesuits were active protectors of native rights against the colonial empires. With the supression of the Order, the profitable Jesuit reductions which gave wealth and protection to natives were sequestered by royal authorities and the natives enslaved. Faced with this supression; the natives, mestizos, and creoles were galvinized into starting theLatin American Wars of Independence.The suppression of the Jesuits in Portugal, France, theTwo Sicilies,Parma, and theSpanish Empireby 1767 was deeply troubling toPope Clement XIII, the society's defender.On 21 July 1773 his successor, PopeClement XIV, issued thepapal briefDominus ac Redemptor, decreeing:
The suppression was carried out on political grounds in all countries exceptPrussiafor a time, andRussia, whereCatherine the Greathad forbidden its promulgation. Because millions of Catholics (including many Jesuits) lived inthe Polish provinces recently part-annexedby theKingdom of Prussia, the Society was able to maintain its continuity and carry on its work all through the stormy period of suppression. Subsequently,Pope Pius VIgranted formal permission for the continuation of the society in Russia and Poland, withStanisław Czerniewiczelected superior of the province in 1782. He was followed byGabriel Lenkiewicz,Franciszek KareuandGabriel Gruberuntil 1805, all elected locally as Temporary Vicars General.Pope Pius VIIhad resolved during his captivity inFranceto restore the Jesuits universally, and on his return to Rome he did so without much delay. On 7 August 1814, with the bullSollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum, he reversed the suppression of the society, and therewith another Polish Jesuit,Tadeusz Brzozowski, who had been elected as superior in Russia in 1805, acquired universal jurisdiction. On his death in 1820 the Jesuits were expelled from Russia by tsarAlexander I.
The period following the Restoration of the Jesuits in 1814 was marked by tremendous growth, as evidenced by the large number of Jesuit colleges and universities established during the 19th century. During this time in the United States, 22 of the society's 28 universities were founded or taken over by the Jesuits. It has been suggested that the experience of suppression had served to heightenorthodoxyamong the Jesuits. While this claim is debatable, Jesuits were generally supportive of papal authority within the church, and some members became associated with theUltramontanistmovement and the declaration ofpapal infallibilityin 1870.
InSwitzerland, theconstitutionwas modified and Jesuits were banished in 1848, following the defeat of theSonderbundCatholic defence alliance. The ban was lifted on 20 May 1973, when 54.9 per cent of voters accepted areferendummodifying the constitution.
In theConstitution of Norwayfrom 1814, a relic from the earlier anti-Catholic laws ofDenmark–Norway, Paragraph 2, known as theJesuit clause, originally read: "The Evangelical-Lutheran religion remains the public religion of the State. Those inhabitants, who confess thereto, are bound to raise their children to the same. Jesuits and monastic orders are not permitted. Jews are still prohibited from entry to the Realm." Jews were first allowed into the realm in 1851 after the famous Norwegian poetHenrik Wergelandhad campaigned for this permission. Monastic orders were permitted in 1897, but the ban on Jesuits was only lifted in 1956.
Republican Spainin the 1930s passed laws banning the Jesuits on grounds that they were obedient to a power different from the state. Pope Pius XI wrote about this: "It was an expression of a soul deeply hostile to God and the Catholic religion, to have disbanded the Religious Orders that had taken a vow of obedience to an authority different from the legitimate authority of the State. In this way it was sought to do away with the Society of Jesus – which can well glory in being one of the soundest auxiliaries of theChair of Saint Peter– with the hope, perhaps, of then being able with less difficulty to overthrow in the near future, the Christian faith and morale in the heart of the Spanish nation, which gave to the Church of God the grand and glorious figure of Ignatius Loyola."
The 20th century witnessed both growth and decline of the order. Following a trend within the Catholic priesthood at large, Jesuit numbers peaked in the 1950s and have declined steadily since. Meanwhile, the number of Jesuit institutions has grown considerably, due in large part to a post–Vatican IIfocus on the establishment of Jesuit secondary schools ininner-cityareas and an increase in voluntary lay groups inspired in part by theSpiritual Exercises. Among the notable Jesuits of the 20th century,John Courtney Murraywas called one of the "architects of theSecond Vatican Council" and drafted what eventually became the council's endorsement of religious freedom,Dignitatis humanae.
In Latin America, the Jesuits had significant influence in the development ofliberation theology, a movement that was controversial in the Catholic community after the negative assessment of it byPope John Paul IIin 1984.
Under Superior GeneralPedro Arrupe,social justiceand the preferential option for the poor emerged as dominant themes of the work of the Jesuits. When Arrupe was paralyzed by a stroke in 1981, Pope John Paul II, not entirely pleased with the progressive turn of the Jesuits, took the unusual step of appointing the venerable and agedPaolo Dezzafor an interim to oversee "the authentic renewal of the Church",instead of the progressive American priestVincent O'Keefewhom Arrupe had preferred.In 1983 John Paul gave leave for the Jesuits to appoint asuccessorto Arrupe.
On 16 November 1989, six Jesuit priests (Ignacio Ellacuría,Segundo Montes,Ignacio Martín-Baró, Joaquin López y López, Juan Ramon Moreno, and Amado López), Elba Ramos their housekeeper, and Celia Marisela Ramos her daughter, were murdered by theSalvadoranmilitary on the campus of theUniversity of Central AmericainSan Salvador, El Salvador, because they had been labeled as subversives by the government.The assassinations galvanized the society's peace and justice movements, including annual protests at theWestern Hemisphere Institute for Security CooperationatFort Benning, Georgia, United States, where several of the assassins had been trained under US government sponsorship.
On 21 February 2001, the Jesuit priestAvery Dulles, an internationally known author, lecturer, and theologian, was created a cardinal of the Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II. The son of former Secretary of StateJohn Foster Dulles, Avery Dulles was long known for his carefully reasoned argumentation and fidelity to the teaching office of the church. An author of 22 books and over 700 theological articles, Dulles died on 12 December 2008 atFordham University, where he had taught for twenty years as the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society. He was, at his passing, one of ten Jesuit cardinals in the Catholic Church.
In 2002,Boston Collegepresident and Jesuit priestWilliam P. Leahyinitiated the Church in the 21st Century program as a means of moving the church "from crisis to renewal". The initiative has provided the society with a platform for examining issues brought about by the worldwideCatholic sex abuse cases, including thepriesthood, celibacy,sexuality, women's roles, and the role of thelaity.
In April 2005,Thomas J. Reese, editor of the American Jesuit weekly magazineAmerica, resigned at the request of the society. The move was widely published in the media as the result of pressure from the Vatican, following years of criticism by theCongregation for the Doctrine of the Faithon articles touching subjects such asHIV/AIDS,religious pluralism,homosexuality, and the right of life for the unborn. Following his resignation, Reese spent a year-longsabbaticalatSanta Clara Universitybefore being named afellowat theWoodstock Theological Centerin Washington, D.C., and later senior analyst for theNational Catholic Reporter. PresidentBarack Obamaappointed him to theUnited States Commission on International Religious Freedomin 2014 and again in 2016.
On 2 February 2006,Peter Hans Kolvenbachinformed members of the Society of Jesus that, with the consent ofPope Benedict XVI, he intended to step down as superior general in 2008, the year he would turn 80.
On 22 April 2006, the Feast of Our Lady, Mother of the Society of Jesus,Pope Benedict XVIgreeted thousands of Jesuits onpilgrimageto Rome, and took the opportunity to thank God "for having granted to your Company the gift of men of extraordinary sanctity and of exceptional apostolic zeal such as St Ignatius of Loyola, St Francis Xavier, and BlessedPeter Faber". He said "St Ignatius of Loyola was above all a man of God, who gave the first place of his life to God, to his greater glory and his greater service. He was a man of profound prayer, which found its center and its culmination in the daily Eucharistic Celebration."
In May 2006, Benedict XVI also wrote a letter to Kolvenbach on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Pope Pius XII's encyclicalHaurietis aquas, on devotion to theSacred Heart, because the Jesuits have always been "extremely active in the promotion of this essential devotion".In his 3 November 2006 visit to thePontifical Gregorian University, Benedict XVI cited the university as "one of the greatest services that the Society of Jesus carries out for the universal Church".
The 35thGeneral Congregationof the Society of Jesus convened on 5 January 2008 and electedAdolfo Nicolásas the new superior general on 19 January 2008. In a letter to the order, Benedict XVI wrote:
In 2013, the Jesuit cardinal Jorge Bergoglio becamePope Francis. Before he became pope, he had been appointed a bishop when he was in "virtual estrangement from the Jesuits" since he was seen as "an enemy of liberation theology" and viewed by others as "still far too orthodox". He was criticised for colluding with theArgentine junta, while biographers characterised him as working to save the lives of other Jesuits.As a Jesuit pope, he has stressed discernment over following rules, changing the culture of the clergy to steer away from clericalism and to move toward an ethic of service, i.e. to have the "smell of sheep", staying close to the people.After his papal election, Superior GeneralAdolfo Nicoláspraised Pope Francis as a "brother among brothers".
On 2 October 2016, General Congregation 36 convened in Rome, convoked by Nicolás, who had announced his intention to resign at age 80.On 14 October, the 36th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus electedArturo Sosa, aVenezuelan, as its thirty-first superior general.
The General Congregation that elected Arturo Sosa in 2016 asked him to bring to completion the process of discerning Jesuit priorities for the time ahead. Sosa devised a plan that enlisted all Jesuits and their lay collaborators in the process of discernment over a 16-month period. Then in February 2019 he presented the results of the discernment, a list of four priorities for Jesuit ministries for the next ten years.
Pope Francis gave his approval to these priorities, saying that they were in harmony with the church's present priorities and with the programmatic letter of his pontificate,Evangelii gaudium.
The spirituality practiced by the Jesuits, called Ignatian spirituality, ultimately based on the Catholic faith and the gospels, is drawn from theConstitutions,The Letters, andAutobiography, and most specially from Ignatius'Spiritual Exercises, whose purpose is "to conquer oneself and to regulate one's life in such a way that no decision is made under the influence of any inordinate attachment". TheExercisesculminate in acontemplationwhereby one develops a facility to "find God in all things".
The formation (training) of Jesuits seeks to prepare men spiritually, academically, and practically for the ministries they will be called to offer the church and world. Ignatius was strongly influenced by theRenaissance, and he wanted Jesuits to be able to offer whatever ministries were most needed at any given moment and, especially, to be ready to respond to missions (assignments) from the pope. Formation forpriesthoodnormally takes between eight and fourteen years, depending on the man's background and previous education, and final vows are taken several years after that, making Jesuit formation among the longest of any of the religious orders.
The society is headed by aSuperior Generalwith the formal titlePraepositus Generalis, Latin for "provost-general", more commonly called Father General. He is elected by the General Congregation for life or until he resigns; he is confirmed by the pope and has absolute authority in running the Society. The current Superior General of the Jesuits is the VenezuelanArturo Sosawho was elected on 14 October 2016.
The Father General is assisted by "assistants", four of whom are "assistants for provident care" and serve as general advisors and a sort of inner council, and several other regional assistants, each of whom heads an "assistancy", which is either a geographic area (for instance the North American Assistancy) or an area of ministry (for instance higher education). The assistants normally reside with Father General in Rome and along with others form an advisory council to the General. A vicar general and secretary of the society run day-to-day administration. The General is also required to have anadmonitor, a confidential advisor whose task is to warn the General honestly and confidentially when he might be acting imprudently or contrary to the church'smagisterium. The central staff of the General is known as the Curia.
The society is divided into geographic areas called provinces, each of which is headed by a Provincial Superior, formally called Father Provincial, chosen by the Superior General. He has authority over all Jesuits and ministries in his area, and is assisted by asociuswho acts as a sort of secretary and chief of staff. With the approval of the Superior General, the Provincial Superior appoints a novice master and a master of tertians to oversee formation, and rectors of local communities of Jesuits.For better cooperation and apostolic efficacy in each continent, the Jesuit provinces are grouped into sixJesuit Conferencesworldwide.
Each Jesuit community within a province is normally headed by a rector who is assisted by a "minister", from the Latin word for "servant", a priest who helps oversee the community's day-to-day needs.
The General Congregation is a meeting of all of the assistants, provincials, and additional representatives who are elected by the professed Jesuits of each province. It meets irregularly and rarely, normally to elect a new superior general and/or to take up some major policy issues for the order. The Superior General meets more regularly with smaller councils composed of just the provincials.
As of 2012, the Jesuits formed the largest singlereligious orderof priests and brothers in the Catholic Church.The Jesuits have experienced a decline in numbers in recent decades. As of 2022, the society had 14,439 members (10,432 priests, 837 brothers, 2,587 scholastics, and 583 novices).This represents a 59% percent decline since the Second Vatican Council (1965), when the society had a total membership of 36,038, of which 20,301 were priests.This decline is most pronounced in Europe and the Americas, with relatively modest membership gains occurring in Asia and Africa.According to Patrick Reilly of theNational Catholic Register, there seems to be no "Pope Francis effect" in counteracting the fall of vocations among the Jesuits.Twenty-eight novices took first vows in the Jesuits in the United States and Haiti in 2019.In September 2019, the superior general of the Jesuits,Arturo Sosa, estimated that by 2034 the number would decrease to about 10,000 Jesuits, with a much younger average age than in 2019, and with a shift away from Europe and into Latin America, Africa, and India.In 2008, their average age was 57.3 years: 63.4 years for priests, 29.9 years for scholastics, and 65.5 years for brothers.
The currentSuperior Generalof the Jesuits isArturo Sosa. The society is characterized by its ministries in the fields ofmissionarywork, human rights,social justiceand, most notably, higher education. It operates colleges and universities in various countries around the world and is particularly active in thePhilippinesandIndia. In the United States the Jesuits have historical ties to27 colleges and universitiesand61 high schools. The degree to which the Jesuits are involved in the administration of each institution varies. As of September 2018, 15 of the 27 Jesuit universities in the US had non-Jesuit lay presidents.According to a 2014 article inThe Atlantic, "the number of Jesuit priests who are active in everyday operations at the schools isn't nearly as high as it once was".Worldwide it runs 322 secondary schools and 172 colleges anduniversities. A typical conception of the mission of a Jesuit school will often contain such concepts as proposing Christ as the model of human life, the pursuit of excellence in teaching and learning, lifelong spiritual and intellectual growth,and training men and women for others.
Jesuits do not have an official habit. The society'sConstitutionsgives the following instructions: "The clothing too should have three characteristics: first, it should be proper; second, conformed to the usage of the country of residence; and third, not contradictory to the poverty we profess." (Const. 577)
The traditional Jesuit-stylecassock, called a "soutane" is similar to a robe which is wrapped around the body and was tied with acincture, rather than the customary buttoned front cassock worn by diocesan priests.A tuftlessbiretta(only diocesan clergy wore tufts) and aferraiolo(cape) completed the look.
Today, most Jesuits in the United States wear theclerical collarand black clothing of diocesan priestswhile most Jesuits in Europe are dressed in civilian clothes.
Jesuit scholar Andrew Dial has calculated that the Jesuits owned more than 20,000 slaves worldwide in 1760, the great majority of them in the Americas.The Jesuits in some places protected the indigenous people of the Americas from slavers, notably theGuaraníin South America, but in other places they enslaved indigenous people after "just wars" in which indigenous people who resisted European colonization were defeated.
The Jesuits also participated in theAtlantic slave trade, working thousands ofAfricanslaves on their large plantations scattered throughout the Americas.Antoine Lavalette, a slave-owning French Jesuit inMartinique, accumulated large debts which he was unable to pay which led to the banning of the Jesuits in France in 1764.
In the United States, tobacco plantations utilizingAfrican-Americanslave labor inMarylandand other states supported Jesuit institutions such asGeorgetown University, from which wereinfamously sold 272 slavesin 1838.
In the 16th century, Jesuits were also complicit in the Portuguese trade in enslavedEast Asians. In other parts of Europe, slaves were probably employed in Jesuit schools and institutions.
The Jesuits justified their ownership of slaves and participation in the slave trade as a means of converting slaves toCatholicism. "Enslaved people...were a captive audience for evangelization."
TheMonita Secreta(Secret Instructions of the Jesuits), published in 1612 and in 1614 inKraków, is alleged to have been written byClaudio Acquaviva, the fifth general of the society, but was probably written by former Jesuit Jerome Zahorowski. It purports to describe the methods to be adopted by Jesuits for the acquisition of greater power and influence for the society and for the Catholic Church. TheCatholic Encyclopediastates the book is a forgery, fabricated to ascribe a sinister reputation to the Society of Jesus.
The Jesuits were temporarily banished from France in 1594 after a man namedJean Châteltried to assassinate the king of France,Henri IV. Under questioning, Châtel revealed that he had been educated by the Jesuits of theCollège de Clermont. The Jesuits were accused of inspiring Châtel's attack. Two of his former teachers were exiled and a third was hanged.The Collège de Clermont was closed, and the building was confiscated. The Jesuits were banned from France, although this ban was quickly lifted and the school eventually reopened.
In England,Henry Garnet, one of the leading English Jesuits, was hanged formisprision of treasonbecause of his knowledge of theGunpowder Plot(1605). The Plot was the attempted assassination ofJames VI and I, his family, and most of theProtestantaristocracy in a single attack, by exploding theHouses of Parliament. Another Jesuit,Oswald Tesimond, managed to escape arrest for his involvement in this plot.
Jesuits have been accused of usingcasuistryto obtain justifications for unjustifiable actions (cf.formulary controversyandLettres Provinciales, byBlaise Pascal).Hence, theConcise Oxford Dictionary of the English languagelists "equivocating" as a secondary denotation of the word "Jesuit". Modern critics of the Society of Jesus includeAvro Manhattan,Alberto Rivera, andMalachi Martin, the latter being the author ofThe Jesuits: The Society of Jesus and the Betrayal of the Roman Catholic Church(1987).
Although in the first 30 years of the existence of the Society of Jesus there were many Jesuits who wereconversos(Catholic-convert Jews and Muslims and their descendants), an anti-conversofaction led to theDecree de genere(1593) which proclaimed that either Jewish or Muslim ancestry, no matter how distant, was an insurmountable impediment for admission to the Society of Jesus.This new rule was contrary to the original wishes of Ignatius who "said that he would take it as a special grace from our Lord to come from Jewish lineage".The 16th-centuryDecree de generewas repealed in 1946.Bylaws requiring "blood purity" became common across Early Modern Spain and Portugal.
Within the Catholic Church, there has existed a sometimes tense relationship between Jesuits and theHoly See, due to questioning of official church teaching and papal directives, such as those onabortion,birth control,women deacons,homosexuality, andliberation theology.At the same time, Jesuits have been appointed to prominent doctrinal and theological positions in the church; under Pope Benedict XVI, ArchbishopLuis Ladaria Ferrerwas Secretary and later, under Pope Francis, Prefect of theCongregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
In the quest to evangelize, Jesuits persecuted people of other religions, including Hindus, Muslims and other Christians. TheGoan Inquisitionwas one among various persecutions that Jesuits were involved in.Voltairewrote that:
The Catholic Church facedpersecution in Nazi Germany. Hitler wasanticlericaland had particular disdain for the Jesuits. According to John Pollard, the Jesuits' "ethos represented the most intransigent opposition to the philosophy of Nazism",and so the Nazis considered them as one of their most dangerous enemies. A Jesuit college in the city ofInnsbruckserved as a center for anti-Nazi resistance and was closed down by the Nazis in 1938.Jesuits were a target forGestapopersecution, and many Jesuit priests were deported to death camps.Jesuits made up the largest contingent of clergy imprisoned in thePriest Barracks of Dachau Concentration Camp.Vincent Lapomarda lists some 30 Jesuits as having died at Dachau.Of the total of 152 Jesuits murdered by the Nazis across Europe, 43 died in the death camps and an additional 27 died from captivity or its results.
The Superior General of Jesuits at the outbreak of war wasWlodzimierz Ledóchowski, a Pole. TheNazi persecution of the Catholic Church in Polandwas particularly severe. Lapomarda wrote that Ledóchowski helped "stiffen the general attitude of the Jesuits against the Nazis" and that he permittedVatican Radioto carry on its campaign against the Nazis in Poland. Vatican Radio was run by the Jesuit Filippo Soccorsi and spoke out against Nazi oppression, particularly with regard to Poland and to Vichy-French antisemitism.
Several Jesuits were prominent in the smallGerman Resistance.Among the central membership of theKreisau Circleof the Resistance were the Jesuit priestsAugustin Rösch,Alfred Delp, andLothar König.The Bavarian Jesuit Provincial,Augustin Rösch, ended the war on death row for his role in theJuly Plotto overthrow Hitler. Another non-military German Resistance group, dubbed the"Frau Solf Tea Party"by the Gestapo, included the Jesuit priestFriedrich Erxleben.The German JesuitRobert Leiberacted as intermediary betweenPius XII and the German Resistance.
Among the Jesuit victims of the Nazis, Germany'sRupert Mayerhas been beatified. Mayer was a Bavarian Jesuit who clashed with the Nazis as early as 1923. Continuing his critique following Hitler's rise to power, Mayer was imprisoned in 1939 and sent toSachsenhausendeath camp. As his health declined, the Nazis feared the creation of a martyr and sent him to the Abbey of Ettal in 1940. There he continued to give sermons and lectures against the evils of the Nazi régime, until his death in 1945.
In his history of the heroes of the Holocaust, the Jewish historianMartin Gilbertnotes that in every country under German occupation, priests played a major part in rescuing Jews, and that the Jesuits were one of the Catholic Orders that hid Jewish children in monasteries and schools to protect them from the Nazis.Fourteen Jesuit priests have been formally recognized byYad Vashem, theHolocaustMartyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem, for risking their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust of World War II: Roger Braun (1910–1981) of France,Pierre Chaillet(1900–1972) of France,Jean-Baptist De Coster(1896–1968) of Belgium,Jean Fleury (1905–1982) of France,Emile Gessler (1891–1958) of Belgium,Jean-Baptiste Janssens(1889–1964) of Belgium, Alphonse Lambrette (1884–1970) of Belgium, Emile Planckaert (1906–2006) of France, Jacob Raile (1894–1949) of Hungary, Henri Revol (1904–1992) of France, Adam Sztark (1907–1942) of Poland, Henri Van Oostayen (1906–1945) of Belgium, Ioannes Marangas (1901–1989) of Greece, and Raffaele de Chantuz Cubbe (1904–1983) of Italy.
Several other Jesuits are known to have rescued or given refuge to Jews during that period.A plaque commemorating the 152 Jesuit priests who gave their lives during the Holocaust was installed in April 2007 at the Jesuits'Rockhurst UniversityinKansas City, Missouri, United States.
Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, the teaching of science in Jesuit schools, as laid down in theRatio atque Institutio Studiorum Societatis Iesu("The Official Plan of studies for the Society of Jesus") of 1599,was almost entirely based on the works of Aristotle.
The Jesuits, nevertheless, have made numerous significant contributions to the development of science.For example, the Jesuits have dedicated significant study to fields fromcosmologytoseismology, the latter of which has been described as "the Jesuit science".The Jesuits have been described as "the single most important contributor to experimental physics in the seventeenth century".According toJonathan Wrightin his bookGod's Soldiers, by the eighteenth century the Jesuits had "contributed to the development ofpendulum clocks,pantographs,barometers,reflecting telescopesandmicroscopes– to scientific fields as various asmagnetism,optics, andelectricity. They observed, in some cases before anyone else, the colored bands onJupiter's surface, theAndromeda nebula, andSaturn's rings. They theorized about the circulation of the blood (independently ofHarvey), the theoretical possibility of flight, the way the moon affected the tides, and the wave-like nature of light."
TheJesuit China missionsof the 16th and 17th centuries introduced Western science andastronomy. One modern historian writes that in late Ming courts, the Jesuits were "regarded as impressive especially for their knowledge of astronomy, calendar-making, mathematics,hydraulics, and geography".The Society of Jesus introduced, according toThomas Woods, "a substantial body of scientific knowledge and a vast array of mental tools for understanding the physical universe, including the Euclidean geometry that made planetary motion comprehensible".
Notable Jesuits includemissionaries, educators, scientists, artists, philosophers, and a pope. Among many distinguished early Jesuits wasFrancis Xavier, a missionary to Asia who converted more people to Catholicism than anyone before, andRobert Bellarmine, aDoctor of the Church.José de AnchietaandManuel da Nóbrega, founders of the city ofSão Paulo, Brazil, were Jesuit priests. Another famous Jesuit wasJean de Brébeuf, a French missionary who was martyred during the 17th century in what was onceNew France(in the portion of which, is now Ontario) in Canada.
In Spanish America,José de Acostawrote a major work on earlyPeruandNew Spainwith important material on indigenous peoples. In South America,Peter Claverwas notable for his mission to African slaves, building on the work of Alonso de Sandoval.Francisco Javier Clavijerowas expelled fromNew Spainduring theSuppression of the Society of Jesusin 1767 and wrote an important history of Mexico during his exile in Italy.Eusebio Kinois renowned in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico (an area then called thePimería Alta). He founded numerous missions and served as the peace-bringer between the tribes and the government of New Spain.Antonio Ruiz de Montoyawas an important missionary in theJesuit reductionsof Paraguay.
Baltasar Graciánwas a 17th-century Spanish Jesuit and baroque prose writer and philosopher. He was born inBelmonte, nearCalatayud(Aragon). His writings, particularlyEl Criticón(1651–57) andOráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia("The Art of Prudence", 1647) were lauded bySchopenhauerandNietzsche.
In Scotland,John Ogilvie, a Jesuit, is the nation's only post-Reformation saint.
Gerard Manley Hopkinswas one of the first English poets to use sprung verse.Anthony de Mellowas a Jesuit priest and psychotherapist who became widely known for his books which introduced Westerners to theEastIndiantraditions of spirituality.
Dorothy Lawsonwas a recusant and patroness of the Society of Jesus,who met yearly at her home to discuss the mission in England after the English Reformation.
Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina waselected by conclaveasPope Francison March 13th 2013 and is the first Jesuit to be elected pope.
The Feast of All Jesuit Saints and Blesseds is celebrated on 5 November.
Although the work of the Jesuits today embraces a wide variety of apostolates, ministries, and civil occupations, they are probably most well known for their educational work, on all continents. Since the inception of the order, Jesuits have been teachers. Besides serving on the faculty of Catholic and secular schools, the Jesuits are the Catholic religious order with thesecond highest number of schoolswhich they run: 168tertiary institutionsin 40 countries and 324 secondary schools in 55 countries. (TheBrothers of the Christian Schoolshave over 560Lasallian educational institutions.) They also run elementary schools at which they are less likely to teach. Many of the schools arenamed after Francis Xavierand other prominent Jesuits.
After theSecond Vatican Council, Jesuit schools had become a very controversial place of instruction as they abandoned teaching traditional Catholic education with things such as the mastery ofLatinand theBaltimore Catechism. Jesuit schools replaced classic theological instruction from people likeThomas AquinasandBonaventureto people likeKarl RahnerandPierre Teilhard de Chardinwhich was a very controversial move at the time.
Jesuit educational institutions aim to promote the values ofEloquentia Perfecta. This is a Jesuit tradition that focuses on cultivating a person as a whole, as one learns to speak and write for the common good.
Jesuits have become increasingly involved in works directed primarily toward social and economic development for the poor and marginalized.Included in this would be research, training, advocacy, and action for human development, as well as direct services. Most Jesuit schools have an office that fosters social awareness and social service in the classroom and through extracurricular programs, usually detailed on their websites. The Jesuits also run over 500 notable or stand-alone social or economic development centres in 56 countries around the world.
Jesuits are also known for their involvement in publications. Most Jesuit colleges and universities have their own presses which produce a variety of books, book series, textbooks, and academic publications.
La Civiltà Cattolica, a periodical produced in Rome by the Jesuits, has often been used as a semi-official platform for popes and officials of the Roman Curia to float ideas for discussion or hint at future statements or positions, though authorship is limited to Jesuits.
The Wayis an international journal of contemporary Christian spirituality published by the British Jesuits.
In the United States of America,Americamagazine has long had a prominent place in Catholic intellectual circlesIgnatius Press, founded by a Jesuit, is an independent publisher of Catholic books, most of which are of the popular academic or lay-intellectual variety.
Manresa is a review of Ignatian spirituality published in Madrid, Spain.
In Australia, the Jesuits produce a number of magazines, includingEureka Street,Madonna,Australian Catholics, andProvince Express.
In Germany, the Jesuits publish the journalGeist und Lebenand the related publicationWeltweitthat describes their international work (theJesuitenmission)
In Sweden the Catholic cultural magazineSignum, edited by the Newman Institute, covers a broad spectrum of issues concerning faith, culture, research, and society. The printed version ofSignumis published eight times per year.