St. Ignatius Loyola was born in 1491, one of 13 children of a family of minor nobility in northern Spain. As a young man Ignatius Loyola was inflamed by the ideals of courtly love and knighthood and dreamed of doing great deeds.
But in 1521 Ignatius was gravely wounded in a battle with the French. While recuperating, Ignatius experienced a conversion. Reading the lives of Jesus and the saints made Ignatius happy and aroused desires to do great things. He realized that these feelings were clues to God’s direction for him.
