‘San Ignacio de Loyola’

Fr. Leo Pabayo

THIS movie was produced by the Philippine Jesuit Communication office (Jescom) in partnership with Jesuit lay-co-workers who are in the movie industry. Jescom is known mainly for the many musical pieces composed by Filipino Jesuits and Jesuit lay partners that are sold in CDs. Jescom is also known for its short (five minutes or so) inspirational movies and the talks of Cardinal and Archbishop Tagle that are aired by ABS-CBN.

“Ignacio de Loyola” is the biggest project of Jescom. It is another tribute to the capability of the Filipino to produce and direct low budget movies of high quality.

The movie is about life of St. Ignatius Loyola, the Founder of the Society of Jesus or the Jesuit Order and declared by the Catholic Church as the Patron Saint of soldiers. Although the movie was produced and directed by the lay co-workers of the Jesuits, the actors, however, are Spanish or Spaniards who are also English-speaking. Ignatius was Spaniard and with professional English speaking Spanish actors this movie was better able to depict the character and temperament of a Basque Spaniard that Ignatius was. Much of the setting of the movie is the province of Guipuzcoa, the home province of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

Ignatius was a soldier and an officer in the armed forces of the kingdom of Castille in the early 1500. As a young man he lived a vain and profligate life until his conversion to a life that was totally given to serving God. His conversion was occasioned by his having been seriously wounded in battle and by a long period of recovery from his wound. While in convalescence he asked for books of romance and adventure to pass the time in bed. But with no such books available in the house he was instead given a book entitled “La Vida Christi” or the Life of Christ and a book on the Lives of the Saints Reading. The reading of these books moved him to reform himself and follow the examples of the saints. He had an extraordinary experience of the presence of Christ in his life as the apostles did.

The saint that we know now as St. Ignatius of Loyola, did not always have that name. He was in fact baptized with the name Iñigo. He was named after a saintly Benedictine Monk who was popularly known at the time of his birth and for whom his mother and the Loyola family must have had a special devotion. The name Ignatius was adopted by him later in his life after his conversion. He adopted the name out of his devotion to the great saint of the very early Church, namely, St. Ignatius of Antioch who was martyred during the persecution of Christians by a Roman Emperor and whose writings about his impending martyrdom was a source of inspiration to the early Christians.

As a Loyola Ignatius belonged to the noble class whose way of life has been made familiar to us in history by the French phrase “noblesse oblige.” This meant that the nobility always maintained a sense of obligation for the serfs who whom they ruled.  The Loyola clan were also known for their allegiance to the King of Spain that they maintained for many generations. They had fought battles for the king of Castille. This loyalty of the Loyola clan was rewarded by the king with a coat of arms that gave them the status of being one of the trusted friends of the King.

Animal lovers may find it interesting that this coat of arms features the image of a pair of wolves standing upright before a cauldron. It seems to imply the wolverine spirit of the sons of Loyola in battle as well as the caring attitude of the Loyola family for the wolves that they fed with leftovers from the family table. The coat of arms has been adopted by the Jesuits and over it is placed the name of Christ. This coat of arms is found in many Jesuit institutions like those of the Ateneo schools.

Inigo was born around the year 1493. The reigning king and queen then were King Ferdinand and Queen Isabela of Castille who would later be succeeded by King Philip after whom the Philippines is named. It was during their reign time that Ignatius served as an officer in their army. He served in helping quell in the conflicts among the feudal lords as well the rebellion of the “Comuneros” that the king also had to subdue.

The movie begins with the scene of a hearse being brought to the house of Loyola that contained the dead body an elder brother of Ignatius who was killed in one of these battles the Loyola clan had fought for the royal throne. The movie ends after Inigo or Ignatius has won over the spiritual battles in his interior life that he overcame would prepare him for the great work that he would accomplish for the greater glory of God and the salvation of man.