Recently when I was in Dublin, my friend Pat Coyle of the Jesuit Communication Centre grabbed a video camera, pointed it at me and said, “In one minute, tell me your favorite story about St. Ignatius.”  This is not, to say the least, a request that one gets every day but, nonetheless, I was ready because there is one anecdote about Inigo more than any other that has seized my imagination.

Shortly after his conversion, Ignatius was riding on a mule towards Montserrat when another rider came alongside him. Learning where Ignatius was headed, the other – a Moor – talked about the Blessed Mother in a way that seemed disrespectful to Inigo and then moved on in front of him.  Still very much a cavalier at heart, Inigo’s blood was stirred by this perceived slight against the Virgin’s honor. The path ahead diverged and Ignatius decided to allow the donkey to choose which way it went.  If the mule followed the Moor then Inigo would kill the Moor, if the mule chose the other path he would continue on to Montserrat.  Happily, the mule chose the path that led to Inigo becoming a saint rather than a murderer… [click to continue...]