St. Ignatius' Own Story

This book, one in the series 'Library of Living Catholic Thought,' is published in special commemoration of the Ignatian Year - the four-hundredth anniversary of the death of St. Ignatius Loyola. This is an account of days remembered by the saint and dictated by him to his faithful disciple, Gonzalez de Camara. It covers the period from his wounding and surrender to the French at Pamplona in 1521 to the time of his coming to Rome in November 1537. St. Ignatius dictated his story only after long and continuous pressure on the part of his spiritual sons to give them some account of his founding of the Society of Jesus. Father de Camara was fortunately gifted with an extraordinary memory. He took notes as Ignatius dictated, and later wrote out at greater length the discourse as he remembered hearing it from the lips of Ignatius, making use even of his very words. The dictation, as was to be expected, was brief and summary and to the point, with no attempt at literary polish. In the translation some attempt has been made to preserve the rather homespun texture of the language. Latin versions were early available, but this book represents the first translation into English from the original text.-Print ed.