St. Ignatius of Loyola

On July 31st , the Church celebrates the feast day of Saint Ignatius of Loyola.  He may sound familiar because of Loyola University. According to the university’s web site, Loyola's rich history dates back to 1540, when Saint Ignatius founded the Jesuit order. From the beginning, Jesuits have held that scholarship plays an important role in helping men and women achieve moral excellence, and so education has been their focus for more than four centuries. It was with this focus that the Jesuits arrived among the earliest settlers in New Orleans and Louisiana, establishing what would become Loyola University. The Jesuit educational network is one of the largest systems in American higher education. Worldwide, Jesuit universities and colleges have graduated more than one million students.

Jesuit education is a call to academic excellence that challenges the student to develop all of his or her talents to the fullest. It is a call to critical thinking and disciplined studies, a call to develop the whole person, head and heart, intellect and feelings. This is the Jesuit mission, thanks to the vision of St. Ignatius.

In the eighteenth century, when the Jesuits were expelled from much of Europe for political reasons, their misfortune turned out to be a boon for the Catholic Church in New Mexico, Colorado, and West Texas. Bishop Lamy of Santa Fe went to Rome and requested some Spanish-speaking Jesuits. Eventually, five Jesuits of the dispersed Naples Province were assigned to him.

Bishop Lamy assigned the Jesuits to work at San Felipe in Old Town Albuquerque in 1868. Fourteen years later, it became evident that New Town Albuquerque would need a church as well, so a site was chosen for what would become Immaculate Conception Church.

The New Town’s people generously helped to build the church, and in 1893, St. Mary’s school was completed and began to educate young Catholics. The Jesuits continue to minister at Immaculate Conception Church in downtown Albuquerque and have done so since the very beginning.

The influence of the Jesuits on New Mexico is undeniable. Many people do not know that prestigious Regis University in Denver was founded by the Jesuits in 1877 in Las Vegas, New Mexico, before moving ten years later to its current site in Colorado.

As we celebrate the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, we remember the efforts of those, like the Jesuits, who came to the Southwest, bringing the gospel message and churches, a ministry of healing and hospitals, and a vision for education and schools.