Harvey D. Egan, S. He was ordained a priest for the New England Province of the Society of Jesus in and joined the Boston College theology faculty in However, his apostolic successes, as well as those of the Society of Jesus from his time to the present, have overshadowed the importance of his mysticism.
The first took place at Loyola during his long, boring recuperation from the shattering leg wounds received at the battle of Pamplona. Daydreaming for hours on end about the stories of courtly love he had previously found in the trashy literature of his day, he also pondered what he now read in the only literature at handโthe lives of the saints in The Golden Legend by Jacopo da Voragine and the Life of Christ by Ludolf of Saxony.
The second significant mystical experience also occurred during his recuperation at Loyola: a vision of the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus.
This transformative vision instilled in Ignatius such a disgust for his past lifeโespecially for sins of the fleshโthat it seemed to erase all the images that had been previously imprinted on his mind. Recovering from his wounds, he went to Manresa where for almost a year he indulged his thirst for great penances and long hours of prayer.
Severe depression, doubts, temptations, and scruplesโalternating with great spiritual joysโfilled his soul. So painful were the tortures from the scruples about his past sins that Ignatius almost committed suicide, and ill health from the severity of his penances brought him to the brink of death. Here it will be to ask for interior knowledge of all the great goods I have received, in order that, stirred to profound gratitude, I may be able to love and serve the Divine Majesty in all things.
