Product Overview
Early Jesuits urged Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556), founder of the Society of Jesus, to share the story of how God had worked in his soul. His memoirs, they hoped, would inspire and guide Jesuits and other readers for years to come. Barton Geger, S.J., provides a new introduction and original annotations for this edition of A Pilgrim’s Testament. Geger includes fascinating notes that accompany this important text, making the autobiography of Ignatius of Loyola more accessible to all.
St. Ignatius of Loyola (c.1491–1556) was a Spanish nobleman who had a spiritual conversion when he was thirty years old. Ignatius did two things for which he is famous. First, he wrote a little book called The Spiritual Exercises, which is a manual of sorts to guide people through a thirty-day silent retreat. The second thing that Ignatius did, after he became a Catholic priest, was to create a fraternity of priests and lay brothers called the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits for short.
Readers will find Ignatius struggling with many of the same questions and tensions that Christians face every day: Why should I belong to the church, if I can follow God in my own way? What should I do with my life? How do I fight this temptation? How do I know when God is trying to tell me something? Is it ever acceptable to say “no” to good people who ask for my help?
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Editorial Reviews
"The very best English translation of the Autobiography with a superb introduction, helpful footnotes and appendices, this new edition is bound to become the English-language standard."
- James Martin, S.J., author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything
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Content
Preface
Introduction
Foreword of Fr. Jerónimo Nadal
Foreword of Fr. Luís Gonçalves da Câmara
A Pilgrim’s Testament
1. Pamplona and Loyola (May 1521 to Late February 1522)
2. Road to Montserrat (February to March 1522)
3. Sojourn at Manresa (March 1522 to February 1523)
4. Pilgrimage to Jerusalem (March to September 1523)
5. Return to Spain (October 1523 to February 1524)
6. Barcelona and Alcalá (February 1524 to June 1527)
7. Trouble at Salamanca (July to December 1527)
8. Progress in Paris (February 1528 to April 1535)
9. Farewell to Spain (October to November 1535)
10. Venice and Vicenza (January 1536 to October 1537)
11. Finally in Rome (November 1537 to October 1538)
Epilogue of Fr. Gonçalves
Appendix 1: Timeline of St. Ignatius’s Life
Appendix 2: Classic Sources for Understanding A Pilgrim’s Testament
Appendix 3: About Citations of the MHSI
Notes
