The Life of Ignatius of Loyola by Pedro de Ribadeneira, S.J. (review)

At long last, this indispensable source for the biography of St. Ignatius Loyola is made available in English. Pedro de Ribadeneira, born in 1526, was singularly well placed to write this “life” since, as a mere lad of thirteen, he had struck up a friendship with Ignatius in Rome. He knew all the early companions, was present at the creation of the Society of Jesus, and witnessed the First Vows. As a member of the Society himself, he occupied key posts in Italy, Belgium, and England but retired to Madrid when barely fifty because of ill health. However, he lived on to an astonishing old age, dying in 1611, having experienced the growth of the order throughout the world.

Ribadeneira’s original text is something of a headache for librarians, as he produced numerous editions of this work in both Latin and Spanish. Translator Claude Pavur has very reasonably opted for the “approved” (third) Latin version of 1586, even though a fuller Spanish edition has dominated the Spanish-speaking world ever since it was published by the author in 1605, largely because of the sheer mastery of the language: Ribadeneira’s works coincided with the flowering of Spain’s Golden Age of Literature. In his introduction, the translator mentions the fidelity with which Ribadeneira uses his sources. These are easy to identify: the key letter of Diego Lainez to Juan Polanco, which was the first biography of Ignatius and was written in 1547, almost ten years before the death of the saint; Polanco’s own account that added many comments to that letter; the Memoriale of Gonçalves da Câmara; and the reminiscences dictated by Ignatius shortly before he died in 1556. However, Pavur cautions the reader about the slant given by Ribadeneira in this work. It is, in fact, more than a “life” and attempts to present the “works” of Ignatius, tracing in considerable detail the early history of the Society of Jesus. Ignatius is here frequently presented in military terms, and the “battle” with the Protestant Reformation is described in vivid, even bombastic language. Many modern readers will note with raised eyebrows the views of Ignatius on the potential dangers of studying Hebrew; and even more his warning against any close association with women. As a historian, Ribadeneira may have aimed to be objective and factual—and at times, he succeeds—but his hagiographical enthusiasm for his subject tends to exclude critical reflection. Such partiality affects the account of early Jesuit expansion, remarkable though that was. The work is divided into five books: the first four give a chronological account of both the life of Ignatius and the spread of the Society; the fifth concentrates on the virtues of the saint and follows the description of the ideal Superior General that Ignatius had inserted into the Constitutions of the Society. The indefatigable Ribadeneira also wrote extensively elsewhere on the institution—defending its originality—and published shorter lives of saints, including one on Ignatius. Among the papers he left behind are Notes on the governance of Ignatius that still await an English translation (now in preparation by this reviewer), but this biography remains his magnum opus.