A cannonball shattered his leg — and set him on the path to sainthood, founding the Jesuits and transforming the Church.

By Jessica Pipes National Catholic Register, Jul 31, 2025 / 04:00 am When Ignatius of Loyola found himself bedridden with a shattered leg, all of his big dreams and plans disappeared.

Ignatius, too, believed in direct access to God, which is why he developed a set of “spiritual exercises" to help individuals ...

A 17th-century statue of St. Ignatius of Loyola by Spanish sculptor Juan Martínez Montañés. (photo: Jl FilpoC via Wikimedia / (CC BY-SA 4.0).) Peter Pinedo/CNA News July 31, 2023 ...

In his mind, he had envisioned this life and built his expectations around its satisfaction. However, God entered his life by sending him a cannonball during the battle of Pamplona, which shattered ...

The upper portion of the sculpture “Saint Ignatius Loyola,” by Juan Martínez Montañés and Francisco Pacheco, is seen in the exhibit “The Sacred Made Real” at the National Gallery of Art ...