When was gonzaga university established

Our alumni have left an undeniable mark on Spokane. Our graduates include Tom Foley, former U. The Spokesman-Review profiles how the tightly knit neighborhood surrounding Gonzaga's campus has transformed as the University has grown. Alumnus Bing Crosby is just one piece of Gonzaga's rich history. Let our University Archive and Special Collections guide you from our founding to present day. Ignatius took this to be such an insult that he was in a dilemma as to what to do. They came to a fork in the road, and Ignatius decided that he would let circumstances direct his course of action.

The Moor went down one fork. Ignatius let the reins of his mule drop. If his mule followed the Moor, he would kill him. If the mule took the other fork he would let the Moor live.

Fortunately for the Moor, Ignatius' mule was more charitable than its rider and took the opposite fork from the Moor. He proceeded to the Benedictine shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat, made a general confession, and knelt all night in vigil before Our Lady's altar, following the rites of chivalry.

He left his sword and knife at the altar, went out and gave away all his fine clothes to a poor man, and dressed himself in rough clothes with sandals and a staff. The Experience at Manresa He continued towards Barcelona but stopped along the river Cardoner at a town called Manresa.

He stayed in a cave outside the town, intending to linger only a few days, but he remained for ten months. He spent hours each day in prayer and also worked in a hospice.

It was while here that the ideas for what are now known as the Spiritual Exercises began to take shape. It was also on the banks of this river that he had a vision which is regarded as the most significant in his life.

The vision was more of an enlightenment, about which he later said that he learned more on that one occasion than he did in the rest of his life. Ignatius never revealed exactly what the vision was, but it seems to have been an encounter with God as He really is so that all creation was seen in a new light and acquired a new meaning and relevance, an experience that enabled Ignatius to find God in all things.

This grace, finding God in all things, is one of the central characteristics of Jesuit spirituality. Ignatius himself never wrote in the rules of the Jesuits that there should be any fixed time for prayer.

Actually, by finding God in all things, all times are times of prayer. He did not, of course, exclude formal prayer, but he differed from other founders regarding the imposition of definite times or duration of prayer.

One of the reasons some opposed the formation of the Society of Jesus was that Ignatius proposed doing away with the chanting of the Divine Office in choir. This was a radical departure from custom, because until this time, every religious order was held to the recitation of the office in common. For Ignatius, such recitation meant that the type of activity envisioned for the Society would be hindered. Some time after the death of Ignatius, a later Pope was so upset about this that he imposed the recitation of the Office in common on the Jesuits.

Fortunately, the next Pope was more understanding and allowed the Jesuits to return to their former practice. It was also during this period at Manresa, still lacking in true wisdom concerning holiness, that he undertook many extreme penances, trying to outdo those he had read of in the lives of the saints. It is possible that some of these penances, especially his fasting, ruined his stomach, which troubled him the rest of his life.

He had not yet learned moderation and true spirituality. This is probably why the congregation he later founded did not have any prescribed or set penances, as other orders had. Once he arrived in the Holy Land he wanted to remain, but was told by the Franciscan superior who had authority over Catholics there that the situation was too dangerous.

Remember, the Turks were the rulers of the Holy Land. The superior ordered Ignatius to leave. Ignatius refused but when threatened with excommunication, he obediently departed.

The Return to School By now he was 33 years old and determined to study for the priesthood. However, he was ignorant of Latin, a necessary preliminary to university studies in those days. So he started back to school studying Latin grammar with young boys in a school in Barcelona. There he begged for his food and shelter. After two years he moved on to the University of Alcala. There his zeal got him into trouble, a problem that continued throughout his life.

He would gather students and adults to explain the Gospels to them and teach them how to pray. His efforts attracted the attention of the Inquisition and he was thrown into jail for 42 days.

When he was released he was told to avoid teaching others. The Spanish Inquisition was a bit paranoid and anyone not ordained was suspect as well as many who were ordained. Because he could not live without helping souls, Ignatius moved on to the University of Salamanca. There, within two weeks, the Dominicans had thrown him back into prison again.

Though they could find no heresy in what he taught, he was told that he could only teach children and then only simple religious truths. Once more he took to the road, this time for Paris. At the University of Paris he began school again, studying Latin grammar and literature, philosophy, and theology.

He would spend a couple of months each summer begging in Flanders for the money he would need to support himself in his studies for the rest of the year. He greatly influenced a few other fellow students Xavier was the hardest nut to crack, interested as he was mainly in worldly success and honors , directing them all at one time or another for thirty days in what we now call the Spiritual Exercises.

Eventually six of them plus Ignatius decided to take vows of chastity and poverty and to go to the Holy Land. If going to the Holy Land became impossible, they would then go to Rome and place themselves at the disposal of the Pope for whatever he would want them to do. They did not think of doing this as a religious order or congregation, but as individual priests.

For a year they waited, however no ship was able to take them to the Holy Land because of the conflict between the Christians and Muslims. While waiting they spent some time working in hospitals and teaching catechism in various cities of northern Italy.

It was during this time that Ignatius was ordained a priest, but he did not say Mass for another year. It is thought that he wanted to say his first Mass in Jerusalem in the land where Jesus himself had lived. It was a few miles outside of the city that Ignatius had the second most significant of his mystical experiences.

Ignatius did not know what this experience meant, for it could mean persecution as well as success since Jesus experienced both. But he felt very comforted since, as St. Paul wrote, to be with Jesus even in persecution was success. When they met with the Pope, he very happily put them to work teaching scripture and theology and preaching.

It was here on Christmas morning, 15 3 8, that Ignatius celebrated his first Mass at the church of St. Mary Major in the Chapel of the Manger. It was thought that this chapel had the actual manger from Bethlehem, so, if Ignatius was not going to be able to say his first Mass at Jesus' birthplace in the Holy Land, then this would be the best substitute.

During the following Lent , Ignatius asked all of his companions to come to Rome to discuss their future. They had never thought of founding a religious order, but now that going to Jerusalem was out, they had to think about their future - whether they would spend it together.

After many weeks of prayer and discussion, they decided to form a community, with the Pope's approval, in which they would vow obedience to a superior general who would hold office for life.

They would place themselves at the disposal of the Holy Father to travel wherever he should wish to send them for whatever duties. A vow to this effect was added to the ordinary vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Ignatius was elected on the first ballot of the group to be superior, but he begged them to reconsider, pray and vote again a few days later. The second ballot came out as the first, unanimous for Ignatius, except for his own vote.

He was still reluctant to accept, but his Franciscan confessor told him it was God's will, so he acquiesced. Paul Outside-the-Walls, the friends pronounced their vows in the newly formed Order. The Last Years Ignatius, whose love it was to be actively involved in teaching catechism to children, directing adults in the Spiritual Exercises, and working among the poor and in hospitals, would for the most part sacrifice this love for the next fifteen years - until his death - and work out of two small rooms, his bedroom and next to it his office, directing this new society throughout the world.

He would spend years composing the Constitutions of the Society and would write thousands of letters to all corners of the globe to his fellow Jesuits dealing with the affairs of the Society and to lay men and women directing them in the spiritual life. From his tiny quarters in Rome he would live to see in his lifetime the Society of Jesus grow from eight to a thousand members, with colleges and houses all over Europe and as far away as Brazil and Japan. Some of the original companions were to become the Pope's theologians at the Council of Trent, an event which played an important role in the Catholic Counter Reformation.

At first Ignatius wrote his own letters, but as the Society grew in numbers and spread over the world, it became impossible to communicate with everyone and still run the new order. Therefore a secretary, Fr. Polanco, was appointed in to help him in his correspondence. We know that Ignatius wrote almost 7, letters during his lifetime, the vast majority of them after he became the Superior General of the Jesuits.

Ignatius considered the correspondence between members of the Jesuits one of the most important elements in fostering unity. Separation of Jesuits throughout the world was one of the greatest dangers to the growth, apostolate and unity of the Society. He not only wrote, therefore, to all the houses of the Order, but he also required the various superiors throughout the world to write to Rome regularly, informing him of what was happening.

This information could be passed on to the houses of the Society everywhere. In his letters to members of the Society, he treated each one as an individual. He was overly kind and gentle with those who gave him the most problems. However, Aloysius grew up during a time in Italy that saw significant violence. He even saw the murders of his two brothers. So, in , his parents sent him to Florence so he could attend the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

While in Spain, Aloysius decided that he wanted to join the Society of Jesus. Despite his father not initially approving of his decision, Aloysius ultimately entered the newly founded religious order in Rome in In Rome, Aloysius regularly went onto the streets to care for plague victims. This then resulted in him contracting the disease himself, though, and he died in June at only 23 years old. He was just six years short of becoming a Jesuit priest.

Many people knew Aloysius Gonzaga for his prayer and fasting.