Produced by Richard J. Shiffer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries.) THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF St. Ignatius EDITED BY J. F. X. O'CONOR, S.J. NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO BENZIGER BROTHERS Printers to the Holy Apostolic See 1900 _Imprimatur._ MICHAEL AUGUSTINE, ARCHBISHOP OF NEW YORK. _Nihil obstat._ EDWARDUS I. PURBRICK, S.J., _Praepositus Provincialis Provinciae Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis_. JACOBUS J. CASEY, S.J., _Censor Deputatus_. NEW YORK, Dec. 14, 1899. COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY BENZIGER BROTHERS. [Illustration: ST. IGNATIUS RECEIVING ST. FRANCIS BORGIA.] [Illustration: ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA.] [Illustration: THE FIRST VOWS AT MONTMARTRE OF ST. IGNATIUS AND COMPANIONS. FATHER FABER CELEBRATING MASS.] [Illustration: ST. IGNATIUS CONVERSING WITH ST. FRANCIS XAVIER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS.] [Illustration: ST. IGNATIUS AT THE HOLY SACRIFICE. Painted by Rubens.] Editor's Preface This account of the life of St. Ignatius, dictated by himself, is considered by the Bollandists the most valuable record of the great Founder of the Society of Jesus. The editors of the _Stimmen Aus Maria Laach_, the German review, as well as those of the English magazine, _The Month_, tell us that it, more than any other work, gives an insight into the spiritual life of St. Ignatius. Few works in ascetical literature, except the writings of St. Teresa and St. Augustine, impart such a knowledge of the soul. To understand fully the Spiritual Exercises, we should know something of the man who wrote them. In this life of St. Ignatius, told in his own words, we acquire an intimate knowledge of the author of the Exercises. We discern the Saint's natural disposition, which was the foundation of his spiritual character. We learn of his conversion, his trials, the obstacles in his way, the heroism with which he accomplished his great mission. This autobiography of St. Ignatius is the groundwork of all the great lives of him that have been written. Bartoli draws from it, Genelli develops it, the recent magnificent works of Father Clair, S.J., and of Stewart Rose are amplifications of this simple story of the life of St. Ignatius. The Saint in his narrative always refers to himself in the third person, and this mode of speech has here been retained. Many persons who have neither the time, nor, perhaps, the inclination, to read larger works, will read, we trust, with pleasure and profit this autobiography.