Saint Ignatius and the Company of Jesus

by August Derleth, John Lawn

This Vision book for youth 9 - 15 years old tells the exciting, dramatic story of St. Ignatius of Loyola and the order he founded, the Society of Jesus. As a young man, Ignatius had dreams of an adventurous life as a soldier. His dreams, however, did not come true the way he had hoped. Seriously wounded in battle, the soldier Ignatius had a profound conversion to Christ during his period of healing and recovery. He abandoned a promising career in the military and dedicated the rest of his life to the service of Christ and the Church. This book tells of his starting one of the most influential orders in the church, and gives a graphic account of his adventures, his many encounters with popes, kings and emperors, and the great work the Jesuits did in spreading the Gospel. Illustrated Cover art by Chris Pelicano This book is now part of Renaissance Learning's Accelerated Reader program . Quizzes are currently available.

Genres: Childrens, Catholic, Christian, Biography

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

August William Derleth was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first book publisher of the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, and for his own contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos and the Cosmic Horror genre, as well as his founding of the publisher Arkham House (which did much to bring supernatural fiction into print in hardcover in the US that had only been readily available in the UK), Derleth was a leading American regional writer of his day, as well as prolific in several other genres, including historical fiction, poetry, detective fiction, science fiction, and biography

A 1938 Guggenheim Fellow, Derleth considered his most serious work to be the ambitious Sac Prairie Saga, a series of fiction, historical fiction, poetry, and non-fiction naturalist works designed to memorialize life in the Wisconsin he knew. Derleth can also be considered a pioneering naturalist and conservationist in his writing

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augus...]

Reviews

[Jungsook Chung · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am familiar with St Ignatius' stories since I am a CLC(Christian Life Community) member who follows St. Ignatian Spirituality. I have read this book before, Saint Ignatius and the Company of Jesus by August Derleth and underlined many parts of the book. I enjoyed rereading it as if I read it for the first time.

St. Ignatius' conversion is very dramatic. He got converted from a most vain, proud, and reckless or brave soldier to a sincere believer of God after a cannon ball having struck him in the legs at the battle of Pamplona when he was 29. He underwent several surgical operations to repair the legs, with his bones set and rebroken. This surgery was done in 1500s before anesthtics. He tolerated all the pain silently, but he could not tolerate the different lengths between two legs after paying so much pain. Neither he was able to endure boredom while recovering from surgery. He wanted to kill time by reading the romances of chivalry but only two books were there; Life of Our Savior and the Lives of the Saints. While reading these books repeatedly, he experienced different joy from what he got previously by his favorite books. He began to discern the movements and effects of spirits and made up his mind to abandon his past life and follow the steps of our savior and of those saints who followed Him.

This book is all about how St. Ignatius was called by Jesus and how faithfully he followed his calling. St. Ignatius is famous for his 'Spiritual Exercises' and he is the founder of the Society of Jesuit (the Company of Jesus). This book will be very good for both children and grown ups since it is easy and interesting to read and inspiring and deep in the meaning.

[Diana M. Caruthers · Rating 5 out of 5]

An inspirational book on Saint Ignatius and his life. How he was at first a captain in the Spanish army and became injured. He retreated to his brother’s home to recover. His sister in law brought him 2 spiritual books to read while he was recovering. At first he resisted reading the Lives of the Saints and Imitation of Christ but after a time he read them and then studied them. He became a new man from reading these books. He resigned his post in the military and from there traveled and prayed. He eventually founded the Company of Jesus and was their spiritual head until his death. What love he had for the poor and absolute Christian values he lived under for the remainder of his life.

[Julie Vavroch · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this with my 11 year old, homeschooled son. He gives it four stars saying "It was good. It wasn't too hard to understand, but it still told the story of his life well. My favorite part about it was the Character Favre. What I learned most from this book was how God can work through people so much and how one person, after a while, can impact so many people!"- win on that! I gave it 3 stars (Julie) b/c I would have liked to know more about his early life.

[Tammy Schilling · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good introductory bio, not too long or detailed. Perfect for the middle school and up age, or the busy adult.

[Shallon J · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this for school which I wasn't looking forward to, but in the end it turned out to be a pretty good book. Especially since I don't read much non fiction

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was glad to learn more about the context of the Spiritual Exercises.