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Four Religious Founders 
by 

Rev. Dr. Francis J. Connell, C.SS.R., 
Rev. Benedict Bradley, O.S.B., 

Rev. Thomas M. Schwertner, O.P., 
Rev. Sigmund Cratz, O. M. Cap., 

Rev. M. J. Ahern, S.J. 

Addresses delivered in the Catholic Hour 
sponsored by the 

National Council of Catholic Men 
with the co-operation of the 

National Broadcasting Company and its Associated 
Stations 

I. The Science of Sainthood 
II. St. Benedict of Nursia 

III. St. Dominic and His Work 
IV. St. Francis of Assisi 
V. St. Ignatius of Loyola 

NATIONAL COtJNCIL OF CATHOLIC MEN 
Sponsor of the Catholic Hour 
. 1314 Massachusetts Avenue 

Washington, D. C. 





Four Religious Founders 
by 

Rev. Dr. Francis J. Connell, C.SS.R., 
Rev. Benedict Bradley, O.S.B., 

Rev. Thomas M. Schwertner, O.P., 
Rev. Sigmund Cratz, O. M. Cap., 

Rev. M. J. Ahern, S.J. 

Addresses delivered in the Catholic Hour 
sponsored by the 

National Council of Catholic Men 
with the co-operation of the 

National Broadcasting Company and its Associated 
Stations 

I. The Science of Sainthood 
II. St. Benedict of Nursia 

III. St. Dominic and His Work 
IV. St. Francis of Assisi 
V. St. Ignatius of Loyola 

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CATHOLIC MEN 
Sponsor of the Catholic Hour 

1314 Massachusetts Avenue 
Washington, D. C. 

P r i n t e d and d i s t r i b u t e d b y O u r S u n d a y V i s i t o r 
H u n t i n g t o n , I n d i a n a 



Imprimatur: 

John Francis Noll, D. D. 

Bishop of Fort Wayne. 

Feast of The Annunciation, March 25, 1931, 

Deactiffierf 



INTRODUCTION. 

Catholics believe that their Church is endowed with pre-
eminent holiness. They put forward this claim, not in a 
spirit of boastfulness nor with any intention of discrediting 
the genuine virtue that so frequently distinguishes members 
of other religious denominations, but because they sincerely 
believe that the Catholic Church is the same Church t h a t was 
founded nineteen centuries ago by Jesus Chirst, the Son of 
God, for the purpose of leading men to sanctity and salva-
tion. Now it stands to reason t h a t an organization estab-
lished f o r such an exalted end by Him Who is the infinite 
and eternal Holiness, and unremittingly protected by His 
fostering care, must infallibly exhibit to .the world unmistak-
able signs of extraordinary sanctity. 

One of the most manifest proofs of the sanctity of the 
Catholic Church is found in the lives of her canonized Saints 
—men and women of every race and of every social rank, 
whom the Church has solemnly declared to have reached the 
goal of everlasting life through the practice of heroic Chris-
tian virtue. In the lives of the Saints we have concrete, 
tangible evidence of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit 
in the Church of Christ. 

Since the Saints constitute so vital an element of Cath-
olicism it was deemed suitable, shortly a f t e r the inaugura-
tion of the "Catholic Hour" (broadcast on the radio every 
Sunday over a nation-wide network of stations), to provide 
t h e many listeners with a series of five talks on sainthood 
in general, and on some of the more eminent Saints in p a r t i -
cular. The speakers chosen for this series were from five 
different religious Orders. The first explained the Catholic 
doctrine of holiness, especially with reference to canonization 
and to the religious life. The other four speakers narrated 
the lives of their respective Founders, and gave an account 
of the spirit and of the activities of their Orders. 

In publishing these radio talks, the National Council of 
Catholic Men, who sponsor the "Catholic Hour," earnestly 
hope t h a t every one t h a t peruses this little pamphlet will 
derive f r o m its inspiring pages the desire and the incentive 
to advance a t least one step nearer to the supreme Ideal of 
Christian holiness, Our LPF(J 8JLD Saviour Jesus Christ. 



DEDICATED 
To 

the thousands of heroic men and 
women who through love of Jesus Christ have 

taken upon themselves the sweet yoke of Poverty, 
Chastity and Obedience in the Religious State 



5 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

THE SCIENCE OF SAINTHOOD 
(Address Delivered by the Rev. Dr. Francis Connell, C. SS. R., 

in the Catholic Hour, August 3, 1930.) 

Sahctity and holiness are words that are generally 
applied only to an extraordinary degree of virtue. 
When we say of a fellow-man that he is holy or saint-
ly, we are usually understood to,mean that the indi-
vidual in question possesses a moral and religious-
perfection f a r superior to that enjoyed by the aver-
age good person. In view of this, it will doubtless 
surprise many of my hearers to learn that, accord-
ing to Catholic doctrine, holiness does not necessrily 
demand an extraordinary measure of righteousness' 
and piety. For, the essential component of true holi-
ness is sanctifying grace. This is a supernatural 
quality which abides in the soul of every one that is 
free from grievous sin, and is in the friendship of 
God. Whoever possesses sanctifying grace is truly 
holy, f o r by it he becomes a partaker of the uncreat-
ed, eternal holiness of God Himself. 

Sanctifying grace is of so exalted a nature t h a t 
only God can confer it on the soul; yet at the same 
time the means of obtaining it from God are availa-
ble to all human beings, and demand no extraordin-
ary effort. The infant on whose brow the waters of 
Baptism have flowed possesses sanctifying grace. 
The man who faithfully and constantly fulfills his 
more important duties to his Creator and to his fel-
low-creatures possesses this divine gift in his soul, 
even though daily he may fall into minor faults of 
impatience, vanity, selfishness. Even the sinner 
who, as the shadow of death hovers over him, looks 



6 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

back on a whole lifetime of wrong-doing, can obtain 
the pardon of his sins and can acquire sanctifying 
grace in a single instant, if he excites in his heart 
true sorrow for the injury he has done to the infinite 
goodness of God. In a word, every one has the op-
portunity of acquiring sanctifying grace, by which 
the soul is made truly holy, and which abides m its 
possessor as long as he remains f r e e from grievous 
sin. 

However, there are widely different degrees of 
holiness. For, sanctifying grace is capable of in-
crease by acts of virtue g and in the practice of virtue, 
as in every endeavor that depends on man's f r e e will, 
some are content with mediocrity while others strive 
f o r the best. The Catholic Church is constantly 
urging her members to increase in holiness, repeat-
ing to all without exception the words of Christ in 
His Sermon on the Mount: "Be you therefore per-
fect, as also your Heavenly Father is perfect." 
(Matthey x, 48). That we may have impressive 
examples of the holiness of life to which all can and 
should aspire, the Church has chosen f o r special ven-
eration a great number of persons who during their 
earthly pilgrimage practiced Christian virtue in an 
heroic degree; and these she designates saints. The 
solemn decision of the Pope by which a person is 
declared a saint is called canonization. I t must not 
be supposed that all those who have led lives of 
eminent sanctity have been canonized. In every 
age there have been men and women who practiced 
exalted virtue, but who were unknown to the world 
and have not been glorified on the Church's altars. 
But their deeds of holiness did not escape the all-
seeing eye of God, and were recorded, each and 



9 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

every one, in the book of life to receive a reward 
exceeding great in heaven. 

The saints were not cast in a different mold f r o m 
ordinary mortals. They had the same nature, the 
same inclinations, the same temptations, as the rest 
of mankind. Indeed, it is just because they were m 
all respects like us that the Church proposes them 
f o r our imitation. "Gaze upon the noble company of 
my heroes and heroines," she tells us. "They felt 
the surge of anger and the thirst f o r revenge be-
neath the sting of harsh words and of unkind deeds; 
yet they returned meekness and forgiveness. They 
experienced the lure of riches and of pleasure and 
of worldly honors, yet by God's grace and the in-
domitable détermination of their will, they subdued 
these cravings. They felt man's innate urge to sel-
fishness, yet they unstintingly devoted their time, 
their energies, their very lives to the service of their 
Creator and of their fellowmen. What they have 
done, you, too, can do." 

Every race and clime, every grade of society, 
every occupation, has contributed its quota to the 
ranks of the Church's saints. Purple-robed kings 
and ragged beggars, profound scholars and ignorant 
peasants, the aged and the young, the innocent and 
the repentant, artists and laborers and soldiers and 
statesmen—from all these classes has the Church 
chosen her canonized saints, to teach us t h a t in 
every state of life it is possible to copy the virtues of 
Our Divine model, Jesus Christ, and thus to become 
holy. 

Besides the example of the saints, many other 
means of holiness a r e provided and fostered by t h e 



8 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

Catholic Church. Incessantly she preaches the 
obligation incumbent on all men to pray to the Al-
mighty that they may be preserved f r o m sin and 
may perform their duties well. For, it is a funda-
mental law of the supernatural order that without 
God's assistance we cannot advance a single step 
toward sanctity; and it is equally certain t h a t God 
will give His efficacious assistance to all those who 
pray f o r it with fervor and humility and persever-
ance. The Church also counsels us to ask the saints 
in heaven, especially the Blessed Virgin Mary, the 
Mother of God, to make intercession in our behalf. 
Effectual aid to holiness is also afforded by the Sacra-
ments, the seveii copious sources of divine grace, 
established by Christ to strengthen man in his 
earthly pilgrimage. Finally, every day on the altar 
of every church throughout the world is offered the 
Sacrifice of the Mass, which applies to individual 
souls the merits that Christ gained f o r mankind in 
general, during His mortal life, especially by His 
death on the Cross. Truly, abundant incentives and 
means are available to those who would make 
progress on the way to holiness. 

In addition to all these helps to holiness, however, 
there is in the Catholic Church an organized institu-
tion, called the religious state, with the definite 
purpose of leading men and women to higher sanc-
tity. The religious state is composed of a number 
of societies, commonly called orders. The members 
of male orders are usually designated brothers or 
monks; and many of them, besides being religious, 
are also priests. The members of female orders are 
known as sisters or nuns. Every order has its dis-



9 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

tinctive garb which all the members wear, and its 
specific rules which all are bound to obey. Some 
orders are spread throughout the entire world, 
others are limited to a small portion of territory, 
such as a single diocese. Some orders are cloistered, 
having no contact with the world; others are devoted 
to forms of labor that bring them into intimate 
association with the ordinary spheres of life. 

What is common i to all orders, however, and 
constitutes the essential factor of the religious state, 
is that the members bind themselves by the vows of 
poverty, chastity and obedience. A vow is a solemn 
promise, freely made to God. I t differs f r o m a mere 
resolution in that it imposes a special obligation to-
ward the Almighty; so that one who would deliber-
ately fail to fulfill a vow he had made would be 
guilty of unfaithfulness to God Himself. The pur-
pose of a vow, therefore, is to animate the one who 
makes it with stability and constancy in doing some-
thing that is pleasing to God. By the vow of pov-
erty a religious promises God to renounce all mater-
ial possessions, or at least the right to dispose of 
his possessions arbitrarily. He also obliges himself 
to seek no luxuries, and to depend on his order f o r 
food, clothing, and other material necessities. By 
the vow of chastity he promises God to remain un-
married and to be pure in thought, word and deed. 
By the vow of obedience he promises God to obey 
his superiors in all those things in which they may 
lawfully command him. These vows are made only 
a f t e r the young man or woman has spent a year or 
two of novitiate in a religious house, as an experi-
ment. Then the vows are taken for a limited period 
(generally three years) and at the end of that» time, 



10 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

if both the religious himself and the order are sat-
isfied, they are taken f o r life. 

In proposing the vows of poverty, chastity and 
obedience as effective means of sanctification, the 
Catholic Church has no intention of declaring t h a t 
all those things that are renounced by these vows 
are sinful. • Temporal possessions, and marriage, 
and personal liberty are good in themselves and can 
be used for God's glory. Nevertheless, in striving 
a f t e r and in using these things man is very liable to 
go to extremes—become engrossed in created goods 
and to forget his duties to God. No one can deny 
t h a t sin and neglect in the service of God are almost 
always due either to avarice or to sensuality or to un-
restrained ambition. Therefore religious bind them-
selves to a life of poverty, chastity and obedience, 
in order that they may escape the principal incen-
tives to sin, and may render God a service t h a t is 
unhampered by too human desires and gratifications. 

, Moreover, the essential features of the religious 
state were approved both in word and in example by 
Jesus Christ, the supreme Model of Christians. He 
spent the three and thirty years of His earthly exist-
ence in poverty—He practiced virginal chastity—He 
was obedient, not only to His Heavenly Father, but 
also to the civil and religious authorities of Judea. 
To those who desired to be His intimate disciples He 
gave the counsel that they renounce those things t h a t 
are dearest to human nature—temporal possessions, 
and home and loved ones—and follow Him. In 
taking and fulfilling their vows, religious believe 
t h a t they are following these counsels of their Divine 
Master. 



FOUR RELIGIOUS POUNDERS 1 1 

Since the service of God is imperfect unless it 
includes the service of one's neighbor, religious de-
vote themselves to works of mercy in behalf of 
their fellowmen. Some conduct hospitals, others 
take care of orphans and foundlings, others under-
take the arduous work of education, others go to 
foreign lands to preach the Gospel. Even from the 
standpoint of philanthropy, the good that is done m 
the world by religious orders incomparably sur-
passes that effected by any other organized endeavor 
But philanthropy is not the ultimate purpose of 
religious men and women in their labors f o r their 
suffering and needy brethren. For, philanthropy 
means love for man; but religious toil out of love 
f 0 r Q0d—because beneath the rags and t a t t e r s of 
the poor, and the pain-racked bodies of the sick, and 
the tear-stained faces of orphans they behold Him 
Who said: "As long as you did it to one of these my 
least brethren ,you did it to Me." (Matthew xxiv,40). 

And there we have the answer to the question 
why so many young men cast aside a brilliant world-
ly career to knock at the monastery door, why so 
many young women exchange gay silks and satins 
for the drab religious garb. Here we see the reason 
why in our own land with its countless opportunities 
f o r temporal success and material prosperity there 
are at present about 120,000 men and women gladly 
enduring the hardships and privations of the re-
ligious state. I t is, to put it simply and directly, be-
cause they love God. For, in the last analysis, the 
source of all holiness, the secret of all sanctity, is 
love—love that will not be contented with the finite 
and transitory, but seeks as its all-embracing object 
the uncreated, unending beauty of the Divinity— 



12 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

love that deems all burdens light and all labors 
blessed if they provide a safer and surer way to find 
the Heart of God and to rest upon His bosom. 



13 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

ST. BENEDICT OF NURSIA 
(Address Delivered by the Rev. Benedict Bradley, O. S. B., 

in the Catholic Hour, August 10, 1930). 

Last Sunday you were told something of the 
nature of sanctity, or holiness. You were told t h a t 
there are men and women who bind themselves 
together in religious societies f o r the purpose of 
living a life of Christian perfection. They do not 
claim to be perfect, but they are inspired with a 
desire of perfection. Following the example of 
Christ as well as His express counsels, they forsake 
the usual pathways of life and dedicate themselves 
to poverty, chastity and obedience, as a special 
mode of life which most surely leads to greater per-
fection. 

Today we begin the- life stories of f o u r great 
Founders of such religious societies, namely, bt. 
Benedict, founder of the Benedictines, St. Dominic, 
founder of the Dominicans, St. Francis of Assisi, 
founder of the Franciscans, and St. Ignatius of 
Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, or the Society of 
Jesus. Among the civilizing and Christianizing in-
fluences of the centuries, these Orders have held a 
prominent place and have made a notable contribu-
tion not only to the cause of the Christian religion 
but also to the welfare of mankind. 

I speak today on the life and work of Saint Bene-
dict, the first of these great Christian heroes. In 
order to appraise the accomplishments of Saint 
Benedict and the society which he founded, it is 
necessary first of all to understand the conditions 



14 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

of the Western world in the days during which he 
lived. 

. During the first three centuries of the Christian 
era the Church passed through ten bloody persecu-
tions. It was not easy in the beginning to win the 
world to the cause of Christ. The principles, values 
and attitudes of the new Christian religion were 
diametrically opposed to the whole culture and f u n -
damental structure of pagan society. The two met 
in a death struggle. Before victory was finally de-
cided, the Church had to witness the slaughter of 
tens of thousands of her children. Only a f t e r the 
great Battle of the Gods, fought at the Milvian 
Bridge in 312, .did peace come to the Christian 
Church. It was here that Constantine, the Roman 
emperor of the West, who had espoused the Chris-
tian cause, finally defeated the pagan forces which 
had rallied for a last stand under Maxentius. The 
famous Edict of Milan, published by Constantine 
a f t e r the battle, permitted the Church to emerge 
from the catacombs and enter upon a normal life. 
This period of peace was only short-lived. I t lasted 
long enough, however, f o r the Church to make 
rapid strides in bringing the citizens of the Roman 
Empire into the Christian fold. The progress was 
rapid, but in the nature of things it could not be 
thorough. Though the adherents of the new religion 
increased in large numbers, under the brilliant 
leadership of the great Fathers of the Church; nev-
ertheless pagan society itself was slow to be trans-
formed. Writing of this period, the well-known 
historian Guizot says: "Civil society, like religious 
society, appeared Christian. The sovereigns and the 
immense majority of the people had embraced 



15 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

Christianity, but at the botom civil society was 
pagan; it retained the institutions, the laws, and the 
manners of paganism." 

The seat of the Empire, shortly a f t e r the peace 
of Constantine, was transferred by the great Em-
peror himself from Rome to the new city in the 
East, named a f t e r him, on the shores of the Bos-
phorus. Roman power and authority, as a result, 
were weakened, arid simultaneously there appeared 
a new power and a new danger in the North. 

Then began the era in history known as the 
"Migration of Nations." The ancient civilized world 
found itself overrun by fierce barbarian tribes, com-
ing, as it seemed, in endless numbers f r o m beyond 
the boundaries of the empire: Ostrogoths, Visigoths, 
Vandals, Huns, Saxons, and others. These wolves 
of the North, as St. Jerome calls them, threatened 
to devour the culture and civilization of the South. 
They were not invading armies, but whole peoples 
on the march. They conquered and they remained. 

Who was to discipline these indomitable races? 
Who would shape them to the great art, now lost, 
of living and governing? Who would teach them to 
found kingdoms and commonwealths? Who would 
soften without enervating them? I t was to be the 
Christian Church, but the Church working through 
the monastic institution of Saint Benedict. 

At this time, when civilization seemed to be on 
the verge of extinction, and the Christian Church 
appeared to be on the point of losing the foothold 
it had gained amid the ruins of the Roman Empire, 
St. Benedict appeared as the providential instru-
ment of a world's regeneration. The great Cardinal 
Newman says of this period: "Saint Benedict found 



16 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

the world, physical and social, in ruins, and his 
mission was to restore it in the way, not of science, 
but of nature." 

Saint Benedict was born at Nursia, in Umbria, 
Italy, about the year 480. All t h a t we know of the 
facts of his life is what St. Gregory t h e Great tells 
us in his Dialogues. His parents were distinguished 
for their wealth and culture. According to his emi-
nent historian, Benedict, blessed both in grace and 
in name, was sent to Rome to receive a liberal edu-
cation at one of the universities of the city. He was 
about 20 years old at this time. Horrified at the 
general licentiousness prevailing in Rome, his his-
torian tells us, "he withdrew the foot he had just 
placed in the entry to the world, and despising the 
pursuit of letters and abandoning his f a t h e r ' s home 
and property, desiring to please God alone, he de-
termined to become a hermit." Like John the 
Baptist, he took up his abode in the mountains 
about Subiaco, some thirty miles from Rome. This 
was about the year 500. For three years he lived 
in the cave of a mountain, hidden from the world, 
in converse with God alone, practising all the aus-
terities of oriental monasticism. 

His existence soon become known to the shepherds 
and country folk round about. Attracted by the 
fame of his sanctity, neighboring hermits who 
dwelt in the mountains soon began to come and place 
themselves under his guidance. A community of 
monks grew up in such numbers that in the course 
of a few years he was able to establish in the neigh-
borhood twelve monasteries of twelve members each, 
with abbots, or superiors, whom he himself appoint-
ed. Saint Benedict's fame f o r holiness had mean-



17 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

while reached the outside world, attracting many 
aspirants to the religious life. Even the sons of 
nobles were brought to him by their parents to be 
trained in the practices of the Christian life. Pope 
Gregory mentions in particular Placidus and Maurus, 
who in time became his able assistants. This is the 
beginning of the great work of education f o r which 
his Order later became famous. 

A f t e r some years, with a chosen band, among 
whom were Maurus and Placidus, Benedict left 
Subiaco and went to Monte Cassino, about 70 miles 
from Rome and about the same distance f r o m Su-
biaco. Here, on the summit of the mountain, in the 
year 529, he laid the foundations of the now famous 
Abbey of Monte Cassino, f r o m which blessings were 
to flow to all the countries of the civilized world. 
This Abbey is visited by thousands of tourists each 
year. At the time of his arrival the inhabitants 
worshipped pagan deities in the temples and groves 
on and around the mountain. Saint Benedict cut 
down the groves and built churches in honor of St. 
John the Baptist and St. Martin, and evangelized 
the pagan inhabitants that dwelt in the neighbor-
hood. 

Saint Benedict had discovered by his own ex-
perience in the cave a t Subiaco and in his govern-
ment of the twelve monasteries that he had estab-
lished that the monasticism of the East then in vogue 
in Italy was out of place in the West and impossible 
of realization, except in the case of very heroic souls, 
so he determined on a complete change, which meant 
a revolution in the religious monastic life of the 
Church. With ripened experience, under the divine 
guidance, he drew up that famous code of laws f o r 



18 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

monks which has since merited for him the title ol 
Patriarch of Western Monasticism. 

Saint Benedict died at Monte Cassino in 543. 
How did this man, who had never been outside 

of Italy, exercise such a tremendous influence on his 
own time and on the following centuries? How did 
Saint Benedict, a second Moses of the New Dispen-
sation, meet the need of his time? I t was not by 
his own activities, or by his personality, or even by 
his holy life that he influenced so deeply his own and 
f u t u r e generations, but by his Rule. Cardinal Gas-
quet, the great English historian, says of this code 
of laws: "The Rule of Saint Benedict may fitly find 
a place in any collection of classics. As a code of 
laws, it has undoubtedly influenced Europe. And, 
indeed, there is probably no other book, save, of 
course, the Holy Bible, which with such certainty 
can be claimed as a chief factor in the work of Eu-
ropean civilization. I t is undeniable t h a t most of 
the nations of modern Europe were converted to the 
Christian faith and tutored in the arts of peace by 
the influence of the mode of life known as monastic. 
The men whose names are connected with t h e be-
ginnings of civilization in the various countries of 
Europe, and their fellow laborers, were f o r the most 
part trained for their mission under the Rule of 
Saint Benedict. Such, f o r example, were Augustine 
in England, Boniface in Germany, Ansgar in Scan-
dinavia, Swithbert and Willibrord in the Nether-
lands, and many others. In view of these facts, 
therefore, it will hardly be denied that the monastic 
system, as codified in the Rule of Saint Benedict, has 
been proved to possess some strange power of in-
fluencing great bodies of men and winning them 



19 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

from the darkness of paganism and the horrors of 
savagery to the light of Christianity and the bless-
ings of a civilized life." 

The family is the center of Saint Benedict's leg-
islation, and the success that followed the efforts 
of the Benedietines in the conversion of nations is 
to be attributed to this family principle. Wherever 
the monk went as a missionary, he established a 
community, a family. He settled among the people 
whom he came to convert, and there with his mon-
astic family he made his home. A new and strange 
family began its life among a barbarous race, pow-
erfully exciting and attracting their attention. A 
new culture soon began to make its influence felt 
f a r and wide. The rude population observed and 
soon began to admire the life of the new commun-
ity that had taken up its abode among them. The 
monks taught them by word and by example. They 
instructed them in the arts of peace. They culti-
vated the land around them, and taught them new 
and improved methods of agriculture. They opened 
schools, in which the natives learned the a r t s and 
sciences. Above all, they instructed them in the sav-
ing truths of Christianity. 

In time the monastery of the monks became sur-
rounded by a fervent Christian community. Bar-
barians, now made Christians, began to knock at 
the door of the monastery f o r admittance into the 
family of monks. A new generation of religious 
began to fill up the ranks of the monks who had 
passed away to a better life. Within a generation 
or so we find in the monastery a native stock, undis-
tinguished in life and culture from the foreigners 
who a few decades previously had come to convert 



20 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

them to Christianity. The large number of recruits 
soon made it necessary f o r the monks to establish 
new monasteries, each monastery being the center 
of a new parish. This accounts f o r the many ruins 
of monasteries that we now find in close proximity 
to one another. As a result of all this, entire nations 
became Christian. 

The great work of civilizing the barbarian na-
tions was made possible only through this family 
principle. Augustine, the Apostle of England, and 
Boniface, the Apostle of Germany, would never 
have accomplished their work as individuals without 
the corporate strength which they possessed as mem-
bers of a Benedictine family. A single person can 
never offer a pattern of life capable of easy imitation 
by society. To create a Christian nation requires 
more than the mere teaching and explanation of 
Christian truths. It needs compact bodies of relig-
ious men; it needs a picture of Christian life; in a 
word, it needs example, and this was to be found 
preeminently in the Benedictine family. Thus, when 
St. Augustine was sent to England with some forty 
monks, Pope Gregory, the first Benedictine Pope, 
reminded him t h a t he must continue to live the 
family life in community with his monks, a f t e r the 
manner of the first Christians in Jerusalem. Around 
his monastery there gathered a peaceful population, 
which soon grew into village and town, modeling 
their local government on the pattern of the Bene-
dictine Rule. 

In his sketch of Monastic History, Cardinal 
Gasquet has this to say on the subject: "The monk is 
preeminently the apostle. But his apostolate is not 
exercised to its full extent as an individual. A sin-



21 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

gle man, though he be a saint, is but one. He comes 
and he goes; he lives his little space and is gone. 
Even a Francis Xavier could not convert a nation 
or build up a Church in India or Japan. The Chris-
tian life is not merely the life of an individual; it is 
the life of a society, and as such it cannot be illus-
trated in its relations and practical workings by the 
example of any one person. To establish a Christian 
nation it is necessary to present f o r the imitation of 
the people who are to compose it, not the bare laws 
and regulations of the Church, but an actual pattern 
of Christian Society." 

By dint of skill and labor the monks taught the 
barbarian the pursuit of agriculture. Trees, fruits, 
flowers and vegetables were imported by them f r o m 
one country to another, and the healing virtues of 
plants and minerals were studied and applied to 
alleviate the sufferings of the sick. The monasteries 
became the hospitals and places of refuge f o r the 
weak and homeless, the aged and the poor, and they 
were always ready to defend the oppressed against 
the powerful, whether kings or nobles. 

We note a striking resemblance between Benedic-
tine modes of action and those of the great Republic 
of Rome. From the earliest days the Romans were 
something more than conquerors; they were coloniz-
ers as well, and it was owing to this fact t h a t they 
were able to subdue the world. They not only con-
quered, but they also perpetuated their conquest by 
colonization. It was by colonization t h a t the bar-
barous nations of Europe were Christianized and 
civilized by Benedictine missionaries. As colonies, 
they exhibited to the people around them the excel-
lence and beauties of Christ's teachings; as colonies, 



22 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

they presented to the barbarian pictures of a cul-
tured society, engaged in the pursuit of art, litera-
ture, and science, whilst at the same time they ex-
emplified in themselves the benefits which civiliza-
tion brought into every detail of daily life. The 
natural and the supernatural benefits were simul-
taneously put within the reach of every one alike. 

Historians of every age, Catholic as well as non-
Catholic, have paid glowing tributes to the work of 
the Benedictines. Especially is this t r u e of the 
historians of our own time. May I quote the 
opinions of a few historians of our own day, not 
members of the Catholic Church? "The monks," 
says the historian Plank, "have been more than the 
benefactors of their age; all humanity has derived 
benefits f r o m their labors. The cultivation of the 
deserts, the clearing of the forests, the draining of 
the marshes, are the least of their benefits; their 
whole life was a sacrifice, and in this was their 
power over barbarous nations." Thatcher and Mc-
Neal, joint authors of a text book on the Middle 
Ages, which is used in the public schools of our coun-
try, have this to say of the Benedictine monks: 
"Wherever they settled they began to till the soil 
and to introduce a better method of agriculture. 
They planted orchards, vineyards, and gardens. 
They taught the barbarians of Europe agriculture 
and the industrial a r t s as well as Christian doc-
trines. In every monastery there was a school. For 
nearly six hundred years the monks were the school-
masters of Europe. [Cardinal Newman calls these 
years the Benedictine centuries.] They wrote his-
tories, f r o m which we derive much of our knowl-
edge of the period, and through their labors in 



FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 23 

copying manuscripts (this was before the age of 
printing) they preserved f o r us nearly all the liter-
ary treasures of Rome which we possess." 

In conclusion, may I state that the life and teach-
ings of Saint Benedict have been f r u i t f u l sources 
of holiness and helpfulness down through the cen-
turies. The religious society which he established, 
and which has endured f o r over fourteen hundred 
years, has given permanence and continuity to his 
efforts in behalf of the Christian religion as well as 
of Christian culture and civilization. 



24 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

ST. DOMINIC AND HIS WORK 
(Address Delivered by the Rev. Thomas M. Schwertner, O. P., 

in the Catholic Hour, August 17, 1930). 

A man who is able to extend himself and his 
influence through seven centuries must be possessed 
of a striking character and personality. That is the 
glory and achievement of Dominic Guzman. A f t e r 
seven hundred years, his memory is green amongst 
a throng of 50,000 or 60,000 men and women, mem-
bers of the orders that bear his name; his ideals are 
as compelling with them as they were with the hand-
f u l of his first disciples; his method of evangelizing 
the people is as actual to them as it was to the Pope 
who in 1217 confirmed his Order; his ardor f o r the 
defense of the truth is a s sacred an obligation to 
them as it was to those who cast in their lot with 
him; his beauty of character is understood by them 
just as it was by those who walked with him in the 
flesh; in a word, Dominic lives today among his 
sons and daughters, as truly as when on foot he 
crossed Europe three times to spread the good news 
of the Gospel and to build in the very strongholds of 
error and darkness citadels of refuge f o r the perse-
cuted and armories f o r the courageous to fit them-
selves to meet foes of truth on their own battlefield. 

What manner of man was Dominic Guzman? 
He was well versed in the sacred and profane 
sciences of his day. Early in life he received the 
rudiments of knowledge f r o m an uncle, a priest at 
Penafiel in Spain. Thence he passed to the Univer-
sity of Palencia, then at the height of its academic 
efficiency. He loved his books and himself copied 



25 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

out with minute care many of the theological classics 
of the day which he was only willing to relinquish 
for the ransom of some poor student taken captive 
by the Moors. For years he took the ample oppor-
tunity to deepen and widen his knowledge of men 
and of matters in the hours left over a f t e r chanting 
the Divine Office as a canon of the Cathedral of 
Osma. When he was sent to Denmark on a diplo-
matic mission by the King, he was as fully equipped 
as any man of his age. But the purpose of the mis-
sion having failed, before he had even arrived in 
Denmark, he, together with his Bishop, Diego, set out 
on a journey to the sacred spots of Rome. 

As Dominic marched through the sunny lands of 
Southern France he came upon the havoc being 
wrought there by the Albigensians, a sect of religious 
anarchists who followed an extravagant Oriental 
fantasy which had filtered into Europe from the f a r 
East. They maintained a belief in a dual God, one 
good, one evil. All material things; they said were 
evil. Hence governments were no longer safe, socie-
ty was not secure, human life itself was despised. 
They insisted upon the right and sometimes the 
obligation of suicide. They carried fire and death 
wherever they went. They parodied the forms of 
Christian worship and institutions; they used a 
subtle symbolism to convey a degraded teaching. 
While in theory they were ultimately to condemn to 
death the rulers of governments, still, they courted 
to such good effect the friendships and protection of 
the mighty t h a t many of the smaller princes of 
Southern France had become secret followers of the 
new doctrine. 

Dominic saw how religion was being devastated 



26 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

in a spot where some of its finest flowers had blos-
somed. Immediately he began a thirteen years' cam-
paign of preaching. He entered into the very midst 
of the Albigensians. He argued with them on street 
corners and crossroads, in homes, in the speaking 
rooms of awkward little inns, and in their very con-
venticles. The Albigensians had met one who could 
not be influenced by threats against his life, by 
sophistries or by appeals to princes. 

Dominic soon began to make converts, especially 
at first among the better educated women. He gath-
ered them together in a convent at Prouille wherein 
learning not only thrived but was also imparted to 
the younger women of the neighborhood. And men 
seeing that some small success would attend the la-
bors of those who, like Dominic, would profess sanc-
tity and practise it, and, like him, would teach 
poverty and live it, begged the privilege of joining 
him as disciples that they might live and work to-
gether. Thus it came about that imperceptibly, 
almost unconsciously, the foundations of the Domin-
ican Order were laid. 

This new generation of men was minded to de-
fend the t r u t h by holiness of life and by learning. 
They would attack the opponents of religion with 
their own weapons of knowledge and preaching. 
Their preaching would be popular so as to reach the 
ear and heart of the man of the street. But it Would 
be informed through and through with theological 
profundity and moral immediacy. 

Dominic probably never dreamed, certainly not 
in those early days, of founding a religious institute. 
But when the number of his disciples began to grow 
daily and their insistence upon having a rule of life 



27 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

according to the ideals of their leader was continual-
ly pressed, the Saint did an arresting thing. In 
1216 he gathered together his fifteen disciples at 
Toulouse and begged them to choose f o r themselves 
a rule of life. A short time before the Church had 
forbidden the multiplication of monastic rules. 
Hence these men chose the Rule which St. Augus-
tine, whose fifteenth centenary we commemorate 
this year, had written in the fifth century f o r a com-
munity of religious women in Northern Africa. A 
few suggestions of Dominic were incorporaated— 
just enough to make it a thing distinct and apart. 
With this rough d r a f t of a Rule, Dominic hastened 
to Rome to obtain for it Papal approbation. Hon-
orius III gladly welcomed him and gave him a 
unique approval, the shortest Papal document of its 
kind on record. The Pope wrote: "Seeing that your 
brethren will be champions of the Faith, we confirm 
your Order." With a copy of the approbation in 
hand, the fifteen disciples were scattered at once to 
all parts of the western world. 

A year later they convened again to discuss freely 
amongst themselves how their manner of living and 
method of campaigning had stood up before actual 
trial and conflict. I t was then determined t h a t a 
superior called a General be elected f o r life. Natur-
ally, Dominic was the universal choice, though he 
begged in vain permission to realize his life's dream 
of preaching to the Cuman T a r t a r s f r o m whom he 

j hoped to receive the crown of martyrdom. The 
world was divided into twelve provinces. At the 
head of each was to stand a provincial, elected every 
four years by the superiors of the convents in the 
territory, and by one delegate chosen by the brethren 



28 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

to represent the rank and file. At the head of each 
convent or monastery was a prior who had plenary 
authority in his own community, but who was elect-
ed every three years by all those who had spent a 
certain number of years in the Order. 

The organization of the Dominican Order is a 
striking example of representative government 
found, strangely, amongst men who vow themselves 
to obedience. This democratic organization of the 
Order, coming at the time when the Free Cities of 
Europe were arising, appealed mightily to the people, 
and undoubtedly accounted in part f o r the rapid 
spread of the Order during the first century of its 
existence. The democracy of the Order made plain 
to all that the exercise of personal independence was 
not contrary to the most deeply religious principles. 

Dominic always maintained that the observances 
of the older monastic institutes must be in p a r t 
retained in his own Order if it were not to go upon 
the rocks of individualism. The monastic observ-
ances, such as the common recitation of the Divine 
Office, fasting, and a score of others, would add t h a t 
ballast to the Dominican ship which would keep it 
from being the plaything of dominating characters. 
This was one efficient way of maintaining a common 
feeling of charity amongst the brethren, of establish-
ing a spirit of solidarity amongst them, of keeping 
the monastic ideal ever bright and alluring. From 
the first the brethren were obliged to repair to their 
own convents a f t e r a protracted period of missionary 
work so as to fire themselves anew with zeal for 
souls. In the quiet of the monastery they could 
think of their own spiritual state, work upon their 
sermons, test their methods of gathering in the luke-



29 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

warm and the unbeliever, take deep draughts of 
knowledge with which to make their preaching all 
t h e more fresh and immediate. 

St. Dominic was the first religious founder to 
put- study on the level of other monastic forms of 
observance. When entering the Order, a young man 
is supposed to have finished his classical studies; f o r 
one year he then occupies his mind with a careful 
scrutiny of the Constitutions of his Order which will 
regulate his entire subsequent life. A f t e r t h a t he 
must apply himself f o r three years to philosophy, 
and f o r four years to theology and cognate sacred 
sciences. Those who promise excellence in any de-
partment of knowledge pursue a postgraduate 
course, lasting two, sometimes four, years in one of 
the higher schools of the Order, found practically in 
every country. Here he may specialize in philosophy, 
theology, Holy Scripture, Church history or Canon 
Law. 

Preaching the Word of God has been f r o m the 
very beginning the ultimate aim and purpose of the 
Order. Its very name, Order of Preachers, given it 
by Pope Honorious III, indicates that sufficiently 
well. St. Dominic, a man of many parts, was chief-
ly a preacher. At t h a t time the a r t of preaching 
had declined and Dominic, seeing the eagerness of 
the people to be instructed in the truths of religion, 
soon arrived at the conclusion that the crying need 
was an itinerant body of preachers well instructed 
in theology, familiar with the popular speech of the 
hour, who would appear as angels of God to make 
known the t r u t h to the people. To meet the needs 
of the age and to avoid all difficulties, the Pope dar-
ingly acceded to the request to give Dominic and his 



30 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

Order their right to preach anywhere and every-
where, without f u r t h e r permission. 

The first thing Dominic did was to send his dis-
ciples to the Universities to freshen their knowledge 
of theology in preparation f o r their preaching 
careers. He and his successors stretched every 
nerve to supply the brethren with what were called 
promptuaries f o r preachers, or as we would call 
them today, sermon books or sermon outlines. Thus, 
Roland of Cremona, a converted Waldensian, was 
asked to summarize the teachings of the sectaries 
so that the preachers might not beat the air a t phan-
tom objections. Raymond of Pennafort asked St. 
Thomas Aquinas to draw up a summary of the phil-
osophical arguments of the ancients. Aquinas on 
his own p a r t asked Raymond Martin to write a 
resume of the teachings of Mohammedans and Jews. 
St. Thomas drew up for the benefit of preachers and 
students a systematic summation of the teachings 
of the Church. St. Raymond in the brief space of 
three years codified the laws of the Church. The 
fifth General of the Order, Blessed Humbert des 
Romans, wrote a treatise on preaching which is a 
gem of its kind, containing numerous sermon out-
lines, many of which are preceded by apt historical 
notes and observations upon the customs of the 
times. 

The intellectual labors of St. Dominic's children 
were not confined to sacred oratory. The Thirteenth 
Century was the high noon of the universities. Men 
who had just obtained their civic rights wished to 
put on the toga of the cultured and educated. Paris 
boasted a university of 30,000 students. Those 
anxious to perfect themselves in civil and ecclesias-



31 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

tical law hastened to the University of Bologna. Ox-
ford was the intellectual core city of northern Eu-
rope and the Isles. Cologne, too, soon erected a 
university. Dominic had been in all these university 
cities, mingling with the people and learning to ad-
mire the intellectual hunger of the students and to 
deplore the license of living which the university 
authorities could not suppress. Himself a university 
man, it was but natural to find men of great parts 
associating themselves with him during the forma-
tive period of thé Order. These men, who were fa-
miliar with university life, were sent to the univer-
sity cities where, by their ardent preaching and their 
tight grip upon the sacred sciences, they exercised 
a holy compulsion over the student body. When 
men like Reginald of Orleans or Jordan of Saxony 
thundered f o r t h f r o m the pulpit there is no wonder 
they attracted the attention and enlisted the good 
will of so many generous youths. Soon a veritable 
procession of young men cast aside their caps and 
gowns in order to put on the white wool of the Do-
minican Order, symbolic both of purity of life and 
integrity of doctrine. They knew t h a t in the Do-
minican convents learning was held in high repute 
and could be had f o r the asking. Many had attended 
the lectures of Thomas Aquinas or of Albert the 
Great; they knew, too, that if they gave promise of 
excelling, provisions would be made f o r them to 
pursue their favorite studies to the fullest. Very 
early the Dominicans set up a house of studies in 
Paris to which vast numbers of students began flock-
ing. In Bologna they could drink deep draughts of 
the Canon Law of the Church. In Montpelier they 
could exercise their wits on the Oriental languages. 



32 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

The students who sat upon the stone floor, legs 
crossed, listening to the lectures of Thomas Aquinas 
or of Albert the Great were anxious to carry away 
with them the intellectual treasures so lavishly dis-
pensed. Since parchment was expensive and writ-
ing materials difficult to obtain, the students impor-
tuned these and other great Dominican teachers to 
write down their class notes. Thus it comes t h a t we 
have the great works of Thomas Aquinas and Albert 
the Great and scores of others. These -notes were 
passed carefully around amongst the students and 
laboriously copied out or sometimes committed to 
memory by means of jingles. 

Having laid solidly and well the foundation of 
his own institute; having walked across Europe 
three times to visit its various establishments and 
stir the enthusiasm of the brethren, especially in the 
university centers; having edified his own by the 
simple, f r a n k manner of his life and conversation 
with them; having declared with sufficient distinct-
ness what his ideals were and how they might be 
best maintained in the face of all manner of odds, 
Dominic entered the city of Bologna, in the first days 
of August one year, physically worn, like St. Paul, 
with much journeying, and burning with the fevers 
which so many pilgrims contracted in the marshes 
of Northern Italy. Because he was wont to chant 
the Divine praises with his brethren, even a f t e r a 
day of much preaching and long marching, he re-
paired to the choir, passing from side to side to 
excite his own to carry out the Plain Song of the 
Church in all its native beauty and impressiveness. 
Then, as was his custom, he remained behind to com-
mune with God alone. In the early watches of the 



FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS S3 

morning he was found by the brethren asleep, with 
his head resting on the base of the altar. Seeing his 
sorry condition, they carried him to the prior's room 
where he asked them to strew the floor with ashes 
in the form of a cross and lay his weary body upon 
it so that, like the poor man of Christ that he was, 
he might die.in absolute poverty. As the end ap-
proached, he declared that he would be of more ser-
vice to his own in heaven than on e a r t h ; that they 
need not f e a r to repose confidence in him when he 
had gone even as they had had absolute t r u s t in his 
manly dealings with them in life. 

August sixth, 1221, his matchless spirit passed 
onward to stand with Christ, the Captain of his 
Soul, Whom he had served so well. His body was 
broken through labors, fasts, scourgings. But there 
were traces still of the comeliness of his early years, 
traces in his pale complexion like ripe wheat, in his 
lustrous eyes that never betrayed the secrets in his 
heart, in his long slender fingers which had never 
been raised save in benediction, in those clean-cut, 
sharp-cut lips, which had announced to so many 
peoples the condescensions of the Great King. 



34 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

ST. FRANCIS ASSISI 
(Address Delivered by the Rev. Sigmund Cratz, O. M. Cap., 

in the Catholic Hour, August 24, 1930). 

Young people are always dreamers. Dreaming is 
as natural to the young man as physical growth. His 
dreams have nothing in common with the shadowy 
visitors of the night. They are shot through with 
sunlight and are dipped in the tints of the rainbow. 
His gorgeous castles of air raise their towers against 
skies of shining blue. He rushes out into the world 
with the assurance of an heir apparent. Men may 
not recognize him nor appreciate his merit. But 
what of it? Tomorrow, tomorrow, his day will 
come and men, like the sheaves of Joseph's vision, 
will fall down and adore him. Alas, tomorrow does 
come and the pitiless blasts of real life send his 
dream-castles tumbling about his ears. Sometimes 
he achieves partial success by making a mosaic of 
the fragments. Mostly he settles down to become 
one of those patient failures whose name is legion. 

Francis of Assisi was a boy who dreamed wonder-
f u l dreams. And why not revel in the glorious make-
believe of youth when nature has been lavish, for-
tune propitious and the world worshipful? His 
doting parents, Pietro and PicaBernardone, indulged 
his every wish. Staid old Assisi took this gallant, 
gay-hearted, gorgeously dressed boy to her heart 
and the younger set crowned him king of every car-
nival. Must not this presage great success? Still 
a mere boy, Francis set out on his quest f o r glory. 
A military career has been f o r many young men 
a short-cut to fame. A touch of grim reality so-



35 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

bered him. At Perugia and again at Spoleto disaster 
wrecked his hopes. A raging fever burnt out his 
dream-castles and his exuberant energy. He rose 
from his sick bed still a dreamer, but a dreamer 
of a kind that find so much savor in their visions 
as to count pain purest joy and to welcome sack-
cloth and ashes. His thoughts turned to eternity. 
True greatness was born of the travail of his youth-
ful longing when he cast out self f r o m the castle of 
his dreams and placed there Christ. 

It was the evening of the third of October in 
the year 1226. Francis lay dying on the earthen floor 
of a wretched hut outside the walls of Assisi. The 
peasant's tunic that had clothed him through life 
was cast aside, his frail body was covered with a 
borrowed mat. Like his Divine Master, he had not 
whereon to lay his head. While his brethren wept, 
he joyously awaited the coming of Sister Death. 
Twenty-five years ago he had celebrated his nuptials 
with the Lady Poverty in the chapel of Saint Mary 
of the Angels at Assisi. He had made of himself a 
beggar and an outcast for Christ's sake. Even so 
his youthful dream of glory had attained a fulfill-
ment which his wildest flights of fancy had never 
pictured. Tomorrow, when the news of his passing 
would be heralded through these hills, men would 
trample upon each other to draw near to his precious 
remains. Francis was taken by death when he was 
but forty-five years old and his apostolate had not 
been long, still, at the time of his death, he counted 
his followers by hundreds of thousands. Literally, 
all the world ran a f t e r him. 

"The paths of glory lead but to the grave." What 
is t h a t fragile thing which men call the immortality 



36 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

of fame ? A page in a text-book of history. Francis, 
the dreamer, sought this evasive thing, a place in 
the memory of men, a line in the history of his 
country had been the ultimate goal of all his aspira-
tions. Knowing Christ and Him Crucified he learned 
thoroughly to despise this sort of thing. And lo, 
mankind has given him immeasurably more than 
this. The heart of the world is his and he has held 
the center of the stage in human affection f o r the 
past seven hundred years. Great deeds, royal lin-
eage, striking genius t h r u s t a man to the fore and 
immortalize his name. Francis' immortality rests 
on a more eminent claim. 

They tell us he was a seer who preached a won-
derful message to men. Others have preached t h a t 
message more eloquently. They say he most im-
pressively revealed the vanity of earthly striving. 
That revelation was all unnecessary. Even the vo-
t a r y of pleasure knows t h a t the joys and pleasures 
of sense are vain. They tell us he was the soul of 
sincerity. He was great enough and wise enough not 
to deceive himself. They say he realized most vivid-
ly the claims of Almighty God upon human life. 
But who does not? The logic of God's claim is sim-
ply compelling. They say he re-discovered Christ. 
That is mere rhetoric. The people of his age knew 
Christ and knew him well. They read the Scrip-
tures and they learned the story of Christ's life even 
as little children from the glorious walls and win-
dows of their vast cathedrals. Francis knew no 
more and saw no more than all the world knows and 
sees. All the world knows t h a t beneath this shell of 
convention and vanity and fraud, there is peace, 
and oh, how the world longs f o r peace! 



37 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

The Thirteenth Century is sometimes called the 
greatest of centuries. I t has a valid claim to t h a t 
title because of the splendor of its architecture, the 
glory of its schools, the importance of its discover-
ies, and chiefly because of the calibre of its men. 
There was a spirit of unrest abroad. The man in 
the street sensed the reason f o r it, the university 
professor was well informed as to its cause. Inno-
cent III, mighty, benevolent and wise, one of the 
greatest Pontiffs that ever sat on Peter's chair, 
cried out in his anguish like P e t e r : "Lord save us 
lest we perish." Well might he call upon the Lord 
f o r help. A grasping, lustful, worldly-minded set 
of men now filled the places of the sons of the mar-
tyrs. A second spring must break, a leader must 
be born, a great crusader must come who would, 
lead men not to Palestine, no, but out f r o m the So-
dom of worldliness back to the spiritual Calvary 
of mortification and vigorous Christian striving. 
The great leader came. I t was the beggar of Inno-
cent's dream, Saint Francis of Assisi. 

The Thirteenth Century loved Christ. Who does 
not? No man loves vice for its own sake. Any 
man brought face to face with the gentleness, puri-
ty and love of the God-Man must be carried away 
with love and longing. The Thirteenth Century was 
ah age of faith. Never was Christ's story told more 
eloquently, never was his image painted more im-
pressively. Christ was the good man's longing and 
the artist's dream. Francis of Assisi joined the 
impetuosity of Peter with the choleric determination 
of Paul. He could never be satisfied with a Christ 
of graven stone or sparkling glass. He would see 
Christ live again in human flesh, however painful 



38 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

the process. With supreme courage he set about 
to blast that crust of worldliness t h a t surrounded the 
minds of men. He proved to an astounded world 
that the Gospel of Christ is not a dead letter. He 
proved that it is a living thing. He proved that 
the eight Beatitudes are to be the ideal of Christian 
life and striving not only in the F i r s t Century but 
in the Thirteenth and Twentieth as well. This is the 
secret of Francis' perennial popularity. Christ is 
the same yesterday, today, and forever. Down at 
the bottom of her heart, the flabby, dissolute, restless 
world would love to be like him. But she wants the 
courage. She dreams and sighs and longs but never 
acts. Francis dared to do what others but dared 
to dream. I t was on this foundation of transparent 
sincerity and sheer courage that divine grace built 
up a classic example of lovable Christ-like holiness 
which has arrested the attention and has won the 
admiration of the whole world. 

The world indeed admires the beauty of Francis' 
character, but even more marvelous than his charac-
t e r is his g i f t of leadership. Francis is the miracle-
man of history. Leadership is a lordly quality. That 
man who can prod men's wills and set their souls 
aflame must be called truly great. Napoleon electri-
fied the minds of Frenchmen, Bismarck quickened 
the pulse of the honest, plodding German. The 
eloquence of Peter the Hermit sent the flower of 
Europe's young manhood off to Palestine. There 
are names in American history which thrill us 
through and through. Washington, Lincoln, Frank-
lin seem to start f r o m the cold page of history and 
to glow with life and vigor. They are the makers 
of a nation. 



39 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

I do not fear to exaggerate when I state that the 
story of Francis's leadership is the most astounding 
fact in all human history. In speaking of his ac-
complishments as a leader men think of the five 
F r i a r s who sat on the chair of Peter. They recount 
the names of more than a hundred Cardinals who 
wore his habit. They tell us of more than three 
thousand Franciscan Bishops and Archbishops. They 
tell us the names of sage F r i a r s who taught at Ox-
ford, Paris, Bologna and other great universities. 
They delight in mentioning the names of men like 
Alexander of Hales, Bonaventure, Roger Bacon, 
Duns Scotus—men who have made such a splendid 
record in the field of theological and scientific re-
search. They will tell us of artists such as Giotto 
and Michael Angelo, of poets like Dante, of explorers 
like Columbus, of statesmen like Windhorst and 
O'Connell, of public servants like Garcia Moreno 
and Frederick Ozanam. They will tell us of scores 
of Popes who have not only been touched by Francis' 
influence but who have actually worn his uniform 
and followed his rule of life. They Will tell us of 
queens like Elizabeth of Thuringia, Elisabeth of 
Portugal; of kings like Louis IX, of France, who 
were proud to wear the cord of Francis over their 
royal robes. They will wax eloquent over the hero-
ism of thousands of F r i a r s who have gone f o r t h to 
pagan lands and who have blazed the way f o r mis-
sionary activity in China, Africa and India 
as well as in the trackless forests of North 
and South Am/erica. Oderic of Porto None, 
Junipero Serra and Cardinal Massaia are names 
that stand out in the missionary annals of the 
Church. They will open the catalogue of the saints 



40 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

and they will read the names of more than five hun-
dred men and women who have worn the Franciscan 
habit and have been crowned with the aureole of 
Sainthood. All this gives evidence of a marvelous 
feat in leadership. One writer goes so f a r as to 
say: "All the threads of civilization in the subse-
quent centuries seem to hark back to Francis." But 
even this glorious list of achievements does not 
exhaust nor does it even measure the power of 
Francis' g i f t of leadership. 

Christ compares the kingdom of heaven to a 
mustard seed. Only Divinity could choose so apt 
a simile. A seed is the most powerful thing in the 
world because it has the power to reproduce itself. 
This is the outstanding characteristic of Saint 
Francis' leadership. The poet says: "I shall not 
altogether die." Francis' influence was great indeed 
during life, but it was actually born at his death. 

I t is one thing to propose high ideals, to accom-
plish their realization is quite another. A kingdom 
lasts while its maker lives, a family dies with those 
who founded it. Francis is often compared with 
Abraham, who was the f a t h e r of a great nation, 
whose children were as numerous as the sands of 
the sea and as the stars of the heavens. The com-
parison is scarcely just to Francis. His children 
are of every nation. No mere bond of blood unites 
them. No human interest sustains their marvelous 
unity of spirit. But Francis is not only the founder 
of a great community. The glory of his leadership 
consists in that he has infused into their ranks a life 
which, like the seed, perpetually renews itself. Num-
bers mean little in an army, the spirit of the men 
means everything. 



41 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

When Francis addressed his brethren, his dis-
course always had the same r e f r a i n : "Brethren, let 
us begin." To these men, emaciated with fasting, 
worn out with work f o r God, living in huts of mud, 
Francis called out: "Brethren, let us begin." I t is 
this divine discontent which Francis sowed into the 
hearts of his followers which is at the bottom of all 
the success his Order has achieved. 

Human nature is weak and unreliable. Christ 
promised his followers persecution to keep their spir-
it sweet. Saint Francis' Order has not been spared 
the sword, the rack and the scourge. The first saints 
of the Order were martyrs and never once in the 
course of seven centuries have the F r i a r s been 
spared the ridicule and the pain which come to all of 
Christ's followers. 

But the ambition which St. Francis implanted in 
the hearts of his sons has done more f o r them than 
the scourge of persecution. "Brethren, let us begin" 
has always been their slogan. No Order of the 
Church has been so frequently reformed as the Fran-
ciscan Order. These reforms always came from 
within. Each reform was the spirit of Saint F r a n -
cis reasserting itself. I t was the outcropping of the 
divine discontent which Saint Francis bequeathed 
to his sons. Ever beginning again, the Order has 
been born and reborn a hundred times during the 
past seven hundred years. 

This is the source of its perennial youth, the liv-
ing leadership of Saint Francis. Whether the uni-
form of the F r i a r be brown or gray or black, wheth-
er circumstances place him on the throne of spiritual 
authority, on the battlefield, in the hovel, or in the 



42 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

palace, the real F r i a r cannot forget the teaching of 
his father, "Brethren, let us begin." 

Perhaps we can better realize the might of Saint 
Francis' leadership when we consider t h a t today 
a f t e r seven hundred years the Franciscan Order 
counts three million one hundred and twenty-four 
thousand members. Thirty-five thousand F r i a r s of 
the first Order observe the Evangelical counsels. 
Eleven thousand four hundred and thirty cloistered 
nuns live according to the second rule of Saint 
Francis. Seventy-seven thousand Tertiaries, men 
and women, are living in communities, and through-
out the world there are more than three million 
members of the Third Order Secular. St. Francis 
is in t r u t h not a memory. He is still a living per-
sonality, he is still the greatest human leader of 
religious thought and striving in the whole world. 
One put of every hundred Catholics is a son or a 
daughter of Saint Francis. 



45 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA, FOUNDER 
OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 

(Address Delivered by the Rev. M. J. Ahern, S. J., in the 
Catholic Hour, August 31, 1930) 

In the sixteenth century the Catholic Church was 
face to face with two vital problems. On the one 
hand was the urgent need of disciplinary reform, and 
of a definitive determination of the doctrines of the 
Church because of the increasingly involved relig-
ious disputes of that e r a ; on the other hand, the pa-
gan Humanism of one phase of the Renaissance had 
to be combated, not by the suppression, but by the 
purging of the ancient classical learning according 
to the Christian rule of life. In this emergency, the 
Society of Jesus was founded, not indeed explicitly 
to help the Church to find the solution of these prob-
lems; but with such an utter devotion to the Holy 
See, and with an organization of men whose aim was 
to unite the highest scholarship in the theological as 
well as the classical sciences, with unbounded zeal 
f o r souls and a missionary spirit like that of the 
great monk-apostles of earlier centuries, that it be-
came an important factor in the Counter-Reforma-
tion. The organization is the Society of Jesus. Its 
founder was a Spanish soldier, Ignatius Loyola. 

St. Ignatius Loyola was born in 1491 in the castle 
of his father, the Lord of Onaz and Loyola, and the 
representative of two of the most ancient and dis-
tinguished families of the Basque province of Gui-
poscoa. The saint was baptized Inigo, a f t e r St. 
Innicas, a Benedictine Abbot of Ona. Later in Rome 
he assumed the name Ignatius in accord with the 



44 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

fashion of t h a t day of turning most names into 
Latin. At an early age he was ordained a cleric, 
that is to say, he became officially assigned to the di-
vine ministry by the reception of the clerical ton-
sure ; but was later released from his obligations f o r 
reasons that are no longer known. As was the cus-
tom of those days with boys of high birth, he was 
brought up in the household of Juan Velasquez de 
Cuellar, a high official of the court of Ferdinand 
and Isabella, in whose suite he probably attended the 
royal court f r o m time to time, though he was not in 
the royal service. This term of service in the retinue 
of a great noble, which lasted until 1517, when 
Ignatius was twenty-five years of age, was the time 
of his education, an education which would scarcely 
merit the name in modern times, f o r it consisted in 
learning to read and write and to know by heart 
certain Latin hymns and such prayers as would 
enable him to assist becomingly at the long Church 
services which were then in vogue. 

From ail accounts what Ignatius learned he 
learned well. He developed a passion f o r reading, 
which he constantly indulged by the perusal of the 
"Romanceros" or novels of chivalry of the day; and 
these begot in him an ardent desire to win glory as 
a knight, and he grew to love the code of chivalry 
with a whole-hearted devotion. At this time Igna-
tius was no better and no worse than the general 
average of young Spanish noblemen of his time. In 
later years he was wont to accuse himself of having 
been a very great sinner. While allowing much f o r 
the humility of the Saint, the t r u t h would seem to be 
that his life at this time had been f a r from a spiritual 
one. In 1517 his patron Velasquez died; and a 



45 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

change for the better seems to have come into the 
life of Ignatius. He took service in the army of the 
Duke of Najora. I t was in this service in 1521, 
while he was engaged in helping to defend the citadel 
of Pampeluna in Navarre against the attacks of a 
French army, that he was wounded in both legs by 
a cannon ball, his lower right limb being badly shat-
tered. This casualty occurred on Pentecost Monday, 
May 20, 1521. The bravery of Ignatius in rallying 
and encouraging his pitifully small garrison and his 
reckless courage under fire, won the admiration of 
t h e French invaders, who showed him every cour-
tesy, gave him in the field all the surgical aid the 
crude medical knowledge of the time could afford 
and sent him, about two weeks a f t e r the surrender, 
in a litter to his home in the ancestral castle of 
Loyola. By the time he arrived there it was found 
t h a t one fractured leg had been badly set, so it had to 
be rebroken. Even a f t e r the wound was healed, a 
piece of protruding bone had to be sawed off; and 
t h e limb, shortened by the clumsy setting, was 
stretched out by heavy weights. All these agonies, 
protracted over a period of five or six weeks, he bore 
without a whimper, and without allowing himself to 
be bound during the operations. There were nc 
anaesthetics in those days. Indeed Ignatius himself 
suggested, even urged the barbarous treatment, the 
effect" of which was to bring him to a state of such 
extreme exhaustion that he began to fail and sink. 
However, on the eve of the feast of Saints Peter and 
Paul he began to convalesce. I t was during this con-
valescence, which lasted many months, that Ignatius, 
in default of his favorite romantic literature, was 
forced to beguile his time with the reading of two 



46 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

simple, pious books which enjoyed in those days the 
widest circulation, "The Life of Christ," by Ludolph 
of Saxony,, and the "Flos Sanctorum" or "Lives of 
the Saints." An English translation of the latter by 
Caxton is familiar to English readers under the title 
"The Golden Legend." 

Ignatius' life up to this time, as he tells us in hi» 
autobiography, was that of a "man given to the vani-
ties of the world," and whose "chief delight was i n 
martial exercise with a great and vain desire to gain 
honor." He was of a strong and daring disposition, 
courageous, loyal to his king, steadfast in his Catho-
lic faith, however lax he may have been in living up 
to its tenets, ambitious, full of initiative, generous to 
a fault, affable and conciliatory in temper and with 
an unusual power of handling and organizing men. 
Most of these were but the ordinary virtues of the 
Spanish officer. As he started to peruse with little 
interest, even with repugnance, the simple tales of 
the Life of Christ and of his heroic imitators, the 
Saints, it was with no thought of remodeling his 
life. But, as one of his recent biographers points 
out, he gradually began to read these spiritual books 
with the same quasi-competitive spirit, with the 
imaginary substitution of himself f o r the Saints, a 
thing he was wont to do when he read the romantic 
tales of chivalry, as if he were the hero and as-if the 
knightly achievements he delighted to read of were 
his own. These speculations led him gradually to 
realize that there was a standard of heavenly chiv-
alry, a goal of spiritual achievement, a battlefield of 
sanctity where the victories were more glorious and 
more enduring than any field of purely earthly com-
bat. Little by little Ignatius realized that whereas. 



FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 47 

his worldly day dreams invariably left him sad and 
dissatisfied, the thought of enlisting in the service of 
God amid the company of the Saints filled him with a 
strong sense of peace and hope and strength. This 
happened so consistently and with such increasing 
conviction, that he recognized t h a t God was speak-
ing to his heart in accents clear and unmistakable. 
With all the ardor of his being he resolved upon a 
life thenceforth of heroic penance. The crowning 
of this resolve he describes in his autobiography, 
written in the third person, t h u s : "One night as he 
lay awake he saw clearly a'likeness of Our Lady 
with, the Holy Child Jesus. With the sight of them 
f o r a notable time he received very intense consola-
tion, and he remained with such a loathing f o r h i s 
past life, especially f o r the sins of the flesh, t h a t it 
seemed as if all the phantasms impressed in his soul 
had passed away. Never again was there the least 
consent to a carnal thought." His conversion w a s 
complete, so complete t h a t f o r the remainder of his 
life his sole aim was to serve God more and more 
faithfully, more and more; intensely, more and more 
lovingly. Never did his life journey deviate f r o m 
its straight course to God, nothing ever changed in 
him except the divine acceleration of his love f o r 
God along that pathway to sanctity. 

The next two years were the years of Ignatius' 
spiritual novitiate. A f t e r a general confession o ' 
his whole life, made with amazing sincerity and 
frankness, he passed his famous vigil of arms be-
fore Our Lady's altar in the great sanctuary of 
Montserrat kneeling there throughout the whole 
night preceding the feast of the Annunciation on 
March 25, in 1522. He suspended his sword and 



48 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

dagger, the emblems of his worldly ambition on the 
walls of the shrine, bestowed his rich outfit upon the 
poor, exchanging it f o r a beggar's clothes. A f t e r 
receiving Holy Communion in the morning, he set 
out with no definite plan, except his firm wish to 
rival all that the Saints had done in the way of pen-
ance. The interval between the vigil at Montserrat 
and his departure f o r the Holy Land, where he 
hoped to spend the remainder of his life in heroic 
penance, Ignatius spent in a cavern near the little 
Spanish town of Manresa. Here he underwent one 
of the most profound spiritual experiences in the 
history of sainthood. ' Through the painful worries 
of scruples, doubts, and hesitations, his health at 
one time breaking under the strain, fighting at one 
depth of his desolation the temptation to end the 
torturing miseries of his scruples by suicide, a temp-
tation which drove him to an excess of fasting which 
was halted by his confessor at the end of a week, 
he passed through the grades of penitent, learner 
and proficient in the science of the spirit. As one 
of his sons of today, also his most recent biographer, 
puts i t : "Thus he entered the cave a spiritual tyro,' 
having hitherto only one virtue, penance. He left it 
a master of the spiritual life, having written in its 
essential lines his master-work 'The Spiritual Exer-
cises. Of the external life before him he as yet 
Knew nothing in detail." 

In February, 1523, Ignatius began his long-med-
itated journey to the Holy Land, and a long and 
painful journey it proved to be. He found t h a t he 
could not remain in the Holy Land, and so we find 
him back in Barcelona about March, 1524. The 
next eleven years from 1524 to 1535, Ignatius de-



49 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

voted to study—more than a third of the remaining 
years of his life. He studied Latin with the school 
boys in Barcelona; philosophy at Alcola and Sala-
manca, completing philosophy at the University of 
Paris where he arrived in 1528 and where he 
methodically repeated his course of arts, taking the 
degree of master of arts on March 14, 1535. In the 
intervals of this repetition he pursued his course of 
theology, taking his licentiate in theology during 
the year 1534. It is true that despite his tremendous 
effort, Ignatius acquired no great erudition; not to 
be wondered at in a man who began what was 
equivalent to a high-school training when he was 
thirty-three and finishing his college course when 
he was over forty. 

The routine of long study was varied by many 
acts of charity and zeal, as well as by many severe 
trials, by poverty, suffering from the plague, mis-
understandings, persecutions, even f r o m Catholic 
sources. The culmination of this period was t h e 
ceremony on the morning of August 15, 1534, when 
Ignatius and six companions, among them the f u -
ture Apostle of the Indies, Francis Xavier, gathered 
in a little chapel at Montmartre and took the vows 
of poverty and chastity, and a third vow to go to the 
Holy Land a f t e r two years when their studies were 
finished. This vow became impossible of fulfillment 
because of the war with the Turks. August 15,1534, 
the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, is then 
the birthday of the Society of Jesus, although the 
Bull which formally constituted the Society was not 
issued by Pope Paul the Third until September 27, 
1540. Ignatius was elected the First General despite 
his reluctance and protests. He called his organiza-



52 
FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

tion by the military title the "Company of Jesus;" 
in all official documents the name is "Society of 
Jesus," though in France, Spain and Italy it is still 
called "Company." The name "Jesuit" was origin-
ally a nickname, but it is no longer a term of offence ; 
and is in fact the popular name f o r a member of the 
Society and is used by its members when speaking 
of themselves. 

The next eleven years of the life of Ignatius 
were spent in consolidating the new religious order 
and in writing the Constitutions of the Society of 
Jesus, which were promulgated in 1552, though they 
were not printed until a f t e r his death. I t is f a r 
beyond the scope of this address to describe these 
Constitutions in any detail. The best way to ap-
preciate them is to study them as they are carried 
into practice by the members of the Society them-
selves. The ideal which the Constitutions endeavor 
to realize in the members of the Society is t h a t of 
a priestly ardor animated by a martial spirit. 
Ignatius, while not wishing for a strictly military 
discipline, had as his leading idea that of a special 
squadron of soldiers of Christ and this suggested 
a quasi-military character f o r many of the pro-
visions of the Constitution. This led Ignatius to in-
corporate a new idea in the government of religious 
orders, the removal of the capitular system, by 
which almost universally in the older Orders the 
officials of every convent and monastery were elected 
by the professed members every three years f o r 
a triennial period. In the Society only the General 
and his immediate staff of Assistants are elected, all 
other Superiors are appointed by the General. An-
other striking change was the prolongation of the 



51 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

novitiate to two years, with the addition of a third 
year a f t e r the completion of all the studies of the 
:Society. Final profession in the Society is made 
only a f t e r the young Jesuit has spent ordinarily sev-
enteen years in the Society. Jesuits do not sing 
the Divine Office in choir, but recite it privately. 
They have no distinct religious habit, the quasi-habit 
familiar to the Society in the United States being 
really the habit of the Spanish secular priests of the 
time of Ignatius. Externally the form of life is t h a t 
followed by the secular clergy in the countries where 
-the Society operates. While a certain minimum of 
prayer is prescribed f o r all, the mode of life of a 
Jesuit is arranged to conform to the work he is 
doing and the country in which he is doing it. Jesuits 
a r e forbidden to "aspire to dignities either within 
•or without the Society," indeed the professed of the 
Society take a vow to this effect, and do not accept 
ecclesiastical dignities except by direct command 
of the Pope, who is their first Superior. The relig-
ious discipline in the Society is intelligent and 
-effective, and savors of true charity and sincere 
spirituality. True, the obedience of the Society is 
strict and all-embracing; but it is an obedience based 
on the love of the Christ whom Ignatius always call-
ed the Supreme Captain of his Company. Accord-
ing to St. Francis Xavier, the greatest spiritual son 
of St. Ignatius, who loved and understood the Socie-
ty as has none other, "The Company of Jesus ought 
to be called the company of' love and of conformity 
of souls." These words of Xavier are the t r u e 
•epitome of Ignatius' Constitutions. 

The Constitutions are only a practical legislative 
«development of "The Spiritual Exercises," rightly 



52 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

considered one of the most remarkable books on the 
spiritual life ever composed by man. I t is almost 
impossible to describe this work, even more impossi-
ble than it would be to describe in mere words a 
technical book on aerial navigation. One would have 
to test a book of the latter kind by actual flight, or 
at least have been an accomplished aviator to be 
able to pass an adequate judgment. "The Spiritual 
Exercises" is a book to be lived, not one to be merely 
read. I t has little or no literary charm. It is a 
manual of arms in the service of God, a book of 
tactics in the spiritual life. The idea of the work is 
to help the person making the exercises to find out 
what the will of God is in regard to his f u t u r e and 
to give him the energy and courage to follow t h a t 
will. Every Jesuit makes these exercises f o r t h i r t y 
days twice in his life, and for eight days every year. 
In the form of the so-called "Retreats" and "Mis-
sions" they are given to tens of thousands of men 
and women, both lay and religious, the world over 
f o r periods of from three to eight, and occasionally 
of from ten to fifteen, and even thirty days. It is 
undeniable that "The Spiritual Exercises" give us the 
key to the inner life of Ignatius, and show us the 
interior forces, the method and the system by which 
he was guided, armed and animated in the life of 
heroic spiritual warfare, which he began at Manresa 
and continued with such increasing ardor until 
his death, which occurred on July 31, 1556. F r o m 
the promulgation of the Constitutions in 1552, and 
indeed f o r some years before that, Ignatius' life was 
spent in partial retirement, the correspondence in-
evitable in governing the Society leaving no time 



53 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

for those active works o f the ministry which in 
themselves Ignatius preferred. 

When he died the Society of Jesus was only six-
teen years old, but it numbered 1000 religious, with 
100 religious houses arranged in 10 provinces. At 
the opening of the year 1929 there were in the entire 
Society 21,188 members: the present rate of growth 
is about 500 members a year. There are now 40 
provinces in the whole Society, six of which are in 
the United States, two in Canada and one in Mexico. 
The number of Jesuits in the United States is about 
4,000, employed in 168 establishments, of which 5 
are seminaries and 7 are novitiates f o r training 
Jesuits; twenty-six are colleges and universities; 
thirty-nine are high schools. The total number of 
students under Jesuit direction in the United States 
is about 75,000. The other institutions are parishes, 
houses of retreats, mission stations, editorial estab-
lishments, and so forth. The number of Jesuit 
establishments in the whole world is about 900. 

Contrary to popular belief, the Society is not 
primarily and exclusively an educational order, 
though its well-known Radio Studiorum has had a 
profound effect on the development of sound peda-
gogy. The members of the Society undertake any 
work f o r the glory of God and the defence and 
spread of the Catholic religion. Over 2,500 of its 
members out of their studies are employed in f o r -
eign missions, with 40 mission territories in every 
quarter of the globe, eight of these being under the 
care of American Jesuits. Several hundred Jesuits 
are engaged in editing and writing, over a thousand 
in preaching missions to the f a i t h f u l of all countries 
where they reside; many are engaged in scientific 



54 FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 

and literary research. .In science Jesuits of the 
present day are most active in astronomy, meteorol-
ogy and seismology. Naturally there is a great deal 
of Jesuit activity in the fields of theology and phil-
osophy. A great many are engaged also in teaching 
catechism, in instructing converts, and in acting as 
chaplains in hospitals, asylums and prisons. The 
universality of the work which Ignatius made the 
aim of his Society is tersely expressed in the third 
rule of the Summary of the Constitutions: "It is 
our vocation to travel to various places and to live 
in any part of the world where there is hope of God's 
greater glory and the good of souls." 

There is a ^meditation at the opening of the Sec-
ond Week of "The Spiritual Exercises" called "The 
Kingdom of Christ," in which Ignatius would have 
us pray that we may not be deaf to the call of the 
Eternal King, but prompt and diligent in the ful-
fillment of His most Holy Will. This meditation is 
the epitome of the life of Ignatius, for his prompt-
ness and diligence in the service of Christ was 
heroic to the last degree. This same promptness 
and diligence in the service of God is the ideal he 
sets before his sons in the Constitutions of the So-
ciety of Jesus, and which he expressed briefly in 
what he called the "Sum and Scope of our Constitu-
tions," as follows: "Men crucified to the world, 
and to whom the world is crucified, such does the 
plan of our life require us to be: new men, I say, 
who have stripped themselves of their own senti-
ments to put on Christ; dead to themselves to live 
to justice; who, as St. Paul says, in labors, in watch-
ing, in fasting, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in 
gweetness, in the Holy Ghost, in charity unfeigned, 



FOUR RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS 55 

in the word of truth, show themselves the ministers 
of God, and by the arms of justice on the right hand 
and on the left, through glory and ignominy, through 
evil fame and good fame, through prosperity and 
adversity, hastened by forced marches to their 
heavenly country themselves, and urge others thither 
by every means and effort in their power." 

However f a r the sons of Ignatius have fallen short 
of this stupendous ideal, it is their precious heritage 
t h a t Ignatius wrote in these words his own 
panegyric. 



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