I shall refer only briefly to it, and to his conversion. He was a young knight fond of gayety and feats of arms, and for some time after he received the wound he was confined to his bed while his broken leg was set; and while awaiting his slow recovery he read the lives of the saints and of Christ, as these were the books given to him in place of the novels he had asked for, as no others were in the house.
In reading the lives of the saints his heart was touched. His eyes were opened to the vanity of life and the reality of eternity compared with the worldliness of the life he had been leading. Inspired with enthusiasm at the lives of the saints, he said, "What they have done, I can do." The event of his life proved the earnestness of his purpose.
He resolved to undertake a life of penance and self-denial, and, while occupied with these holy resolutions, he wrote in a book the principal events of the life of Christ and His glorious Mother. It was at this time that Our Lord sent him a vision to strengthen and console him. He beheld one night, as he was holding his vigils, the glorious Queen of the angels, who appeared to him holding in her arms her Blessed Son, enlightening him with the splendor of glory and charming him by her sweet presence.
To her he ascribes the inspiration of the Spiritual Exercises, and his Order, imitating its founder, has shown the most unbounded affection and devoted filial love toward the Virgin Mother of Christ.
At Alcala St. Ignatius studied, and there won for the Society of Jesus, Laynez, Salmeron, and Babadilla. He afterward founded there a college where Vasquez, Suarez, and St. Francis Borgia expounded the Holy Scriptures. St. Ignatius sent Father de Torres to Salamanca to found the famous college where the illustrious professors, Cardinal de Lugo, Francis Suarez, Maldonatus, Gregory of Valencia, Francis Ribera, and many other illustrious men were professors.
At the University of Paris, in 1534, on the 14th of March, St. Ignatius received the degree of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy, having received the degree of Bachelor of Arts two years before. The University of Paris had the honor of having as pupils St. Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier, Peter Faber, Claude le Jay, Simon Rodriguez, John Codura, Paschasius, Brouet, Martin Olave, all honored with the academic degree.
Among the earlier colleges founded by St. Ignatius were the following:—