Ignacio en Manresa. De la éctasis espiritual a la evangelización global

Abstract

Ignatius in Manresa. From the spiritual ecstasy to the global evangelization

The experience of desperation and rapture in Manresa was crucial in the formation of Ignatius of Loyola’s spirituality. A journey in self-discovery, the Ignatian
pilgrimage from Monserat to Manresa, transformed the former soldier into first an ascetic, then a visionary with a new mission. The first part of this article uses the writings of Ignatius and the biography by Ribadeneyra to reconstruct this psychological transformation. Next we follow the journey of Francisco Javier, Ignatius’s early companion in Paris, who became the first Jesuit missionary overseas. Using both the letters of Javier and the 1622 celebration of his canonization we reconstruct a view of christian missions as spiritual conquest, which was one of the major spiritual legacies of Ignatius from Manresa. In the person of Matteo Ricci, the most successful Jesuit missionary in China, we find another example of the imitation of Ignatian mystical spirituality. The paper ends with a discussion of the work of Giulio Aleni, who adapted the engravings of Jerome Nadal for China, and present an Ignatian vision of universal salvation, where a divine vision was open to all, in China as well as Europe.