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Jesuit Devotions Jesuit Devotions Relics of Christ and the Saints Defining characteristics of that part of Catholic devotion known as Jesuit Saints Jesuit devotion derive from Jesuit spirituality, understood as those The Jesuits were active agents in promoting the cult of relics in their missions Jesuit iconography changed dramatically after 1622, with the canonization means used to draw a person closer to God that are particular to throughout the world. On the Feast of of the first Jesuit saints, Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier. From All Saints in 1578, the Jesuits organized a that point on, those and later Jesuit saints, (including Francis Borja, the insights of St. Ignatius Loyola and amplified by later Jesuits. Any festive reception of 214 relics of European Aloysius Gonzaga, and Stanislaus Kostka), occupied a dominant place in consideration of Jesuit devotion must be rooted in Ignatius’s Spiritual saints that Pope Gregory XIII (reigned 1572- Jesuit imagery and devotion. 1585) had sent them to be distributed in the Exercises, the foundational spiritual document of the Society of Jesus. churches of Mexico City. In order to guard While the iconography of the Society is varied, more and more of it came In the Exercises, Ignatius employed what has been described as a them, eighteen sumptuous reliquaries to be dominated by images of the saints, the blessed, and the martyrs of the of gold, silver and precious stones were order. This phenomenon marked the Jesuit enterprise throughout the world. “theology of visibility” to guide the exercitant to a knowledge of self crafted, which were taken in procession Whenever Jesuit saints were depicted together, Ignatius invariably stood at from the cathedral to the College of the their head, with Francis Xavier almost as invariably at his side. and union with God. Society of Jesus. For the occasion, the streets were decorated with arches and banners The Jesuits considered the visual arts to be key to the affirmation of and a theatrical presentation, El triunfo de los santos, was performed. This celebration Catholic faith. From the very beginning, they promoted devotional art gave the Jesuits great prestige just six years after their arrival in Mexico. For the and the use of imagery, whether real (paintings and illustrated books), inhabitants of New Spain (Mexico), those The Sacred Heart of Jesus or imagined (visionary devotional practices) and their attitude was relics converted their land into a sacred and sanctified space. In 1765, the same year in which he published the constitution in­­­­­ support of the Jesuits, soon reflected in the decoration of their churches. Pope Clement XIII (reigned 1758-69) ratified the cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a —Martin Austin Nesvig, Local Religion in Colonial Mexico, University of New Mexico Press, 2006 devotion closely associated with the Jesuits since the second half of the 17th century. More specifically, Ignatius directed the exercitant to use all one’s Sacred Heart images showing Jesus holding the heart, which is encircled by a crown of The Holy Family thorns, topped with a small cross and radiating light, appeared everywhere in Europe Devotion to the Holy Family was vigorously promoted by the Society of capabilities to “make present” the mysteries of salvation recorded One of four large reliquaries at Old St. Joseph’s and the colonies. The archetypal image, The Sacred Heart of Jesus, a painting by Pompeo Jesus as a model for evangelization and spiritual renewal from Europe to Church, Philadelphia, PA. The one shown in the Gospels by imaginative mental reconstruction—what he Batoni for the Church of the Gesù in Rome soon became widely disseminated. The Latin America, from New France to Baja California. For Jesuit writers contains relics of Jesuit Saints Ignatius Loyola, devotion focused on the physical heart of Jesus as a symbol of divine love. Significantly, and missionaries, the Holy Family was the cradle of Christianity, returning calls “composition of place.” This process entailed making mental Francis Xavier, Francis Borgia, Francis Regis, The Consolation of St. Ignatius Loyola St. Aloysius Gonzaga believers to the dawn of the Christian era and the Church. In other words, Francis Jerome, Peter Claver, Aloysius Gonzaga, Sacred Heart images were removed from churches in countries where the Jesuits were Mexican, 18th century, oil on copper Mexican,19th century, oil on copper pictures using the imagination and familiar visual prototypes from Mary and Joseph were the first human beings who “knew and adored Christ John Berchmans, Stanislaus Kostka, Alphonsus suppressed almost as soon as those places were occupied by the secular authorities. Such St. Ignatius is shown in rapture staring toward While nursing the sick in a plaque hospital in Rome in was the power of images. the heavens and the monogram of the Society of 1591, Gonzaga contracted the plague himself and died. incarnate; the first Christians who model what it means to be companions the exercitant’s personal experience of sacred images. In other words, Rodríguez, Edmund Campion, Andreas —Edgar Peters Bowron, Joseph J. Rishel, et al, Jesus (IHS). He sheds tears at both the baseness of His cult was approved in 1621—for those days, remark- —Joseph F. Chorpenning, O.S.F.S. Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century Earth and the consolation of Heaven. ably soon after his death—and he quickly assumed an and disciples of Jesus.” Bobola, Peter Canisius, Stephen Pongrácz, (The Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2000) Ignatius knew that a “picture is worth a thousand words.” important place in Jesuit iconography as the patron saint The Heavenly and Earthly Trinities, Bernardino Realino, Bl. Antonio Baldinucci, and of youth. c. 1690-1710, oil on canvas, Circle of Diego Quispe Tito, School of Cuzco, Peru —M. Maher, S.J., Devotion, the Society of Jesus, and the Idea of St. Joseph Saint Joseph’s University Collection (Saint Joseph’s University Press, 2000) Bl. Rudolph Acquaviva. The Sacred Heart of Jesus, Pompeo Batoni, c. 1765-67, oil on copper, Il Gesù, Rome. Gift of Katherine A. Hillman ’74 and Joseph H. Schneider ’74 The Cult of the Guardian Angels The Circumcision of Jesus St. Joseph and The Holy Name of Jesus It was on the Feast of St. Joseph, March 19, 1539, Quebec City) to the naming of the early reductions The Circumcision was important for the Jesuits, While other religious orders had lengthy that the first assignment by Pope Paul III was of Paraguay. And, of course, the first Catholic church of course, because it was at that event that Jesus given to St. Ignatius and his companions. That in Philadelphia was Old St. Joseph's, founded in and salient traditions of devotion to the received His name. As Luke tells us (2:210), circumstance was thought to 1733 by Joseph Greaton, S.J. angels, in the early modern era the Jesuits “After eight days, when He was circumcised, augur well for acceptance by the constituted a vanguard in the vigor and He was called Jesus, the name given by the papacy of the Society of Jesus In the 19th century, a number of manner of their propagation of the cult of angel before He was conceived in the womb.” as a new religious community Jesuit colleges in America were the Guardian Angels through their example The feast of the Circumcision, January 3, is the of men. Indeed, that approval consecrated to St. Joseph though and devotional practices, writings, and official “titular feast” of the Society of Jesus, came the following year. In the they were named for other saints celebrated with great solemnity in Jesuit churches preaching. Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius or cities, among these were everywhere. Loyola often introduced Georgetown University and St. Joseph into the gospel Santa Clara University. In 1872, For the Jesuits, the cult of the Guardian The Circumcision was chosen by the Jesuits to meditations on the earthly life when an epidemic of measles Angels went back to their founder, St. decorate the high altar of the Gesù, though its of our Lord; he also held St. raged throughout the Distric t The Christmas Crèche Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), who theme was unusual as the principal theme of Joseph up to his spiritual sons of Columbia, special devotions a church, it represents the moment Christ was as an exemplar of paternal were held at Georgetown to The origin of the crèche is traced to St. Francis of Assisi’s considered the nature of angelic influences named and was therefore a symbol not only creation of a living crèche in tableau at Midnight Mass on in the sections of the Spiritual Exercises on authority and filial obedience. invoke the protection of St. of the patronage of the church, but also of the Christmas Eve in Greccio (Italy), in 1223. However, the first the discernment of spirits. They believed, Joseph. The next year, when Society of Jesus itself. The second painting of the After the Council of Trent, the the more serious epidemic Christmas crèche known to have been erected in a church along with many of their contemporaries, stood, not in a Franciscan church, but in a Jesuit church in Circumcision for a high altar was produced in Jesuits played a major role of smallpox threatened, St. that each person was accompanied through Prague in 1562. In fact, the Jesuits adopted the crèche as a 1605 by Peter Paul Rubens for the Jesuit church in promoting devotion to St. St. Joseph and the Christ Child Joseph was again invoked. Italian School, 19th century, oil on copper life and cared for by a special angel. Jesuit Circumcision, Girolamo Muziano. in Genoa. In it one recognizes the adoration of special Christmas devotion, taking it with them on their Oil on panel, 1587–89.
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