The Top 3 Reasons why St. Ignatius of Loyola was one of the greatest Saints of all time.

Do you even know why there weren’t any classes this Monday? Do you even know why you got that extra 4 hours of sleep and why you were a bum the whole goddamn Monday while other students from other colleges were sitting down in their Accounting classes listening to Mr. Gomez talk about balance sheets, financial statements, and why Mrs. Gomez left him for his best friend? Well, Mr. I’m- too-bloody-ignorant-and-lazy-to-even-Google-why, it was the Feast of St. Ignatius, the Ateneo’s patron saint. Now, everyone knows the story, everyone knows that he is the very reason why our parents our throwing their money at this school to pay for our tuition. It is a fact that St. Ignatius is in everyone’s Top 3 Favorites Saints List because lets be frank, not many of us know the difference between St. Francis Xavier and St. Francis of Assisi. So with that, I present you a crash course into the life of St. Ignatius of Loyola and why he was actually one of the cooler and greatest saints of all time. OF ALL TIME.





1.) His name is Ignatius
The first reason as to why St. Ignatius is our patron saint is simple – his name. Google up “Ignatius” in Yahoo!, and you’ll see that Ignatius means “the fiery one”. Yes, it means “the fiery one”. His name connotes that he shares the same characteristics of fire, the most destructive and unhelpful force in nature, and at the same time, also has the ability to bring about life.The man is fierce, passionate, and paradoxical! Ignatius is essentially the most masculine name a man can get. In comparison, the name “Kevin” means beautiful, a word that is usually used for females. Now, I know what you are saying, the logic I am using is flawed since I am depending on a person to live up to what his name means. But seriously, have you ever met a “Brock” who wasn’t buff and on the football team? Or have you ever met a “Urkel” who wasn’t a retard? Yep, case closed.
Then comes the “of Loyola” part of his name. Now, Loyola is located in the Basque region of Spain. What makes the Basque so damn special, you ask? Well, for starters, these people dominated our ancestors. Yes, the Basque are and were responsible as to why you, Juan dela Cruz, have that little Spanish in you. They “conquered” our ancestors if you know what I mean. Heck, some of Ignatius’ buddies might even have been on the voyage to the Philippines. What else is kick-ass about the Basque? Well, some notable people who have a Basque ancestry are Xabi Alonso, Pio Baroja, Leopold Eyharts, and Pichichi. Who are these people you ask? I have no clue. But hey, they sound important.

2.) He got hit in the leg by a cannonball and walked it off
If you aren’t familiar with the story, St. Ignatius was a soldier before he devoted his life to God. And while he was serving under the Spanish flag, his career in the Spanish military was cut short because he took a cannonball to the legs.

Firstly, the French weren’t pushovers when it came to war. Aside from Democracy, French fries, French toast, crepes, and berets, these dudes were also into war. Really into war. The French Army was essentially today’s America only better dressed with cute little curly mustaches and an accent. They were one of the strongest, if not the strongest military superpowers of the time. Ergo, going into battle against them wouldn’t be really advisable. However, Ignatius, being the fiery person that he is, joined in and started to shove his sword down the gullets of those dirty French bastards.

Then, I’d like to imagine, while in the middle of stabbing Francois with one hand and throwing haymakers at Jean-Pierre with the other, he gets hit by a cannonball that wounded one leg and completely eviscerated the other. Now, if you’ve ever seen a cannon on the big screen, you’d imagine a scene that would go a little something like this:



Oh, why yes, that cannonball did rip that blue coat’s head clean off. But, Ignatius, being the strong, robust man that he was, withstood the brunt of the attack and lives to fight another day. Only problem was, after surviving said hit from the 16th century bazooka, he was probably laying on the ground, helpless, unable to move, and would be basically easy pickings for a Frenchman.…

3.) He earned people’s respect
…which brings me to my next point. We all know that the French have been known not to be merciful when it came to times of crisis. Just ask Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. But instead of leaving Ignatius out for the vultures or just stabbing him on sight, they did something that was far more unexpected- they carried him back to his camp.

Yeah, the French might’ve been in a cheery mood that day and probably decided went, “Hey, you know what, screw the killing, we’re gonna save lives today”, but I’d like to think that it goes much deeper than that. I believe that Ignatius earned their respect and admiration, so much so that the French, seeing courage in him, just carried him back to his camp to live another day. They did admire him as a soldier, but more importantly, they admired him for who he was.

It doesn’t end there though. Once he got back to the safety of a warm and cozy bed, he then had to endure the pain of rudimentary and underdeveloped forms of surgery. Remember that during those days, anesthesia wasn’t invented yet. So, the best thing the nurses could do was to hold your give, give you words of support like, and probably hand you a lollipop after it’s done. Moreover, doctors were able to set the leg back, which meant literally twisting and popping the leg back into it’s place, but it did not completely heal. So, being the caring and loving doctors they were, they had to break it again on purpose, and redo the whole process.
Now, if that right there doesn’t earn your respect, I don’t know what will.