Foundations and Struggles

The earliest years of Saint Joseph’s College were a time of struggle. In the end, the obstacles proved too great, and after just fifteen years of existence, the college went into an eclipse that would last an entire generation. During this period, the college’s two locations in Philadelphia contributed to its difficulties. Throughout this trying time, the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits as they were better known, made the college possible and sustained it until better days.

The Society of Jesus was founded in 1540 by Saint Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556). The Society quickly became the most famous, the most influential, and—for some—the most feared religious order in the Roman Catholic Church. Any understanding of the Jesuits must therefore begin with Loyola himself, whose work, ideas, and inspiration continue to be a central force among the Jesuits more than four centuries after his death. Born Don Íñigo de Oñaz y Loyola, the future founder of the Society of Jesus came from a noble Spanish family of modest means. Reared to be a professional military officer, Ignatius (Latin for Íñigo) had little formal education. In 1521 his leg was fractured by a cannon ball in a battle against the French at Pamplona. The leg had to be reset three times. During his long and painful recovery he read—among the meager collection of books at his ancestral castle—two volumes that had a wholly unexpected influence on his future: Ludolph of Saxony’s Life of Christ and the Flos Sanctorum, a collection of lives of the saints....

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