St. Ignatius in Rome

By Thomas Lucas, SJ

For almost two years, more than 50 people worked to restore the rooms of St. Ignatius and the corridor that adjoins them. Here, the Jesuits’ founder dreamed his vision of service to God and to the Church, here he lived for the last 12 years of his life, and here he died on July 31, 1556.

The rooms were the top floor of the residence built by St. Ignatius and Codacio in 1543-1544. That poorly built house stood until 1598, when a disastrous flood on Christmas Eve damaged its foundations. The rooms are all that remain of that first building.

	The architectural splendor that Br. Andrea Pozzo created here (ca. 1680). An absolute master of perspective, Pozzo created on the flat surfaces of the walls and the gentle curve of the vault the illusion of immense space filled with complex architectural and human forms. Pozzo joined mechanical precision with playful confidence in his craft and deep love for his subject, St. Ignatius.
Photo by Jeremy Langford
St. Ignatius writes the Constitutions, a painting by De Ribera ca. 1622.
	Photo by Danny Costello
	St. Ignatius wrote and revised the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus in this room. This fundamental document defines the shape of Jesuit life, mission and service. The small wooden desk was St. Ignatius’ own, in which he kept his private papers. The painting (ca. 1400) is called “La Madonna della Scrivania,” our Lady of the Desk, because it hung over St. Ignatius’ desk.
Photo by Jeremy Langford
A pair of St. Ignatius’ shoes. Pilgrims seeking relics carefully cut away most of the soles of the shoes.
	Photo by Danny Costello
	The chasuble St. Ignatius wore when he celebrated Mass and in which he was buried. It was removed from his bones when his body was moved in 1568, and has been preserved here ever since.
Photo by Jeremy Langford
In the niche of a bricked up doorway that probably served as a private entrance to the rooms, a fresco of the seal of the Society was recently found under two coats of whitewash. It probably dates from ca. 1605 when the rooms became a shrine.
	Photo by Arthur Stern
	The bronze head of St. Ignatius is an exact cast made from the terra cotta version of the original death mask in the Jesuit Archives in Rome.
Photo by Marcus Bleech