A birthplace

Saint Ignatius in his land,.....

Ignatius of Loyola was born in 1491. The founder of the Society of Jesus and, without a doubt, the most universally renowned Basque, spent his childhood between the "Holy Home" or Tower-House of Loyola and the farm called Egibar, home of his wet nurse, María Garín. This farm can still be visited today because it has been splendidly remodeled as an Environmental Museum. The Holy Home is inside the Sanctuary complex, adjacent to the church. This magnificent tower with robust walls in the lower sections and elegant mudejar brickwork in the upper sections, is a testimony to the daily life of the Oñaz-Loyola household. Iñigo was the youngest of 13 children and his family, which held the title to the parish of Azpeitia, was quite powerful and well situated. The Contador Mayor or Royal Accountant of Castille himself requested from the lord of the Loyola family one of his offspring and Iñigo was granted this privilege and traveled to Arévalo in 1505, living there until 1517, practically for his entire childhood. After this, he became a man of the court and palace and served under the Viceroy of Navarre, participating in the capture of Najera and heading a peace mission to Gipuzcoa. In May 1521 he was injured during combat at the citadel of Pamplona, and this became a turning point in his life and the first step in his conversion. During his long period of convalescence in Loyola, an ideal pace for study and reflection, Saint Ignatius takes important steps in his path towards Christian maturity.
After making a pilgrimage to the Holy land and visiting the Sanctuaries of Arantzazu and Montserrat, he undertkes university studies in Barcelona, Alcalá and Paris for a period of 12 years. In April 1535 he leaves Paris and returns incognito to Loyola to visit his family. He does not lodge at his luxurious family home and instead sleeps at the Spartan Hospital of Magdalene in Azpeitia. During this short visit, he preaches at the hermitage of Our Lady of Elosiaga while perched on a plum tree and at the Parish Church of San Sebastian de Soreasu in Azpeitia, where the pyle in which he was baptized is still maintained today. Close by the Sanctuary of Loyola, we can find the Olatz Hermitage that dates to the 13th century and is home to a beautiful image of the Virgin to which the Saint was especially devoted. .

" .........., Ignatius always looked in the direction of Rome. This is the axis around which the budding Society revolved. Because......it is in perpetual motion! It was recognized by Paulo III (September 27th, 1540) after lengthy deliberations with the first "society members"- among whom were well known figures, such as Francisco Javier, Diego Laínez, Pedro Fabro, Alfonso Salmerón-. The Spiritual Exercises were approved eight years later, on July 31st, 1548,....And the dispersion had begun: India, Europe, Brazil, Japan...... At the time of the death of Ignatius, the Society was made up of a thousand members.
Finding God, .... he died on July 31st, 1556"

(Autobiography of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. The pilgrim.)