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This Month in Jesuit History

October 10

1549. The Province of India constituted, with Xavier as its first Provincial.

1806. The first Novitiate of the Maryland Mission is opened, at Georgetown, in a house facing Holy Trinity Church. Ten Novices enter. The Novice Director is Fr. Francis Neale, himself a novice who had entered the Jesuits on that day.

1820. At the 20th GC Father Petrucci, Vicar-General, led astray by the turbulent Father Rezzi, was deposed. Father Rezzi was expelled from the Society as a factiosus.

1938. The first golf match is held between the theologians and philosophers at the new golf course at Woodstock. It ends in a tie, but the 112 theologians win two days later in a playoff.

1948. The official blessing and dedication of LeMoyne College, Syracuse, NY.

1949. Letter of Fr. General Janssens, "Instruction on the Social Apostolate."

1950. Jan Korec is ordained a priest in prison in Czechoslovakia. One year later, at the age of 27, he is made a bishop, and a cardinal in 1991. He is released from prison in 1968.

October 11

1667. The Feast of St. Ignatius is raised to a “double” and extended to the universal church.

1688. King Louis XIV forbade all correspondence and interchange between the French Jesuits and the Spanish General, Thyrsus Gonzalez. This petty tyranny lasted two years.

1958. Pierre LeJay, S.J. +. He was a French Jesuit, famed geophysicist, member of the French Academy, and did research on the continental drift.

1963. Walter Ciszek, S.J. is freed from prison camp in Russia. He had been in detention since 1938.

October 12

Blessed John Beyzym, priest. Optional memorial.

1600. At Madrid died Father Louis Molina, a great theologian, whose doctrine on Grace and Free Will was fiercely attacked by Dominicans and others, and ably defended before Clement VIII by theologians of the Society.

1935. Work begins on Woodstock College golf course. The reason for this is given as the increase in medical difficulties” due to the Alack of provisions for an agreeable form of light exercise.”

1976. Fr. Joao Bosco Burnier, S.J. is shot and killed by soldiers in rural Brazil for protesting the torture of two Indian women. Aged 59.

October 13

1534. The election of Pope Paul III (Cardinal Alessandro Farnese) who by his Bull Regimini militantis , constituted the Society a Religious Order.

1537. At Venice the Papal Nuncio published his written verdict declaring that Ignatius Loyola was innocent of all charges which had been leveled against him by his detractors. 1676. The arrival in London of Claude de la Colombiere, to be the chaplain and confessor of the Duchess of York, the wife of the future King James II.

1990. The celebration at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome 113 opens the Ignatian Year.

October 14

St. John Ogilvie, S.J. martyr, Memorial.

1774. A French Jesuit in China wrote an epitaph to the Jesuit mission in China after the suppression. It concludes:“Go, traveler, continue on your way. Felicitate the dead; weep for the living; pray for all. Wonder, and be silent.”

1854. Fr. John Bapst, S.J. is tarred and feathered by religious bigots, Know nothings, in Ellsworth, Maine. He was also the first Rector of the Boston College Scholasticate. He was given a gold watch as a result of the ordeal, and was given special permission by Father General to wear such a costly watch.

1939. General Franco visits the Jesuit community at the Loyola Sanctuary, Spain. An Inscription reads: "To our leader Francisco Franco restorer of the Society of Jesus in Spain, praise and long life- in remembrance of the visit of our Caudillo to Loyola,

1939, Year of Victory."

1977. Bing Crosby +, after a round of golf, on the way to the clubhouse. Jesuit alumnus. 1982. Daniel O'Connell + Rome, age 86. An expert on double stars, he was director of the Vatican Observatory from 1952-70.

October 15

Teresa of Avila, virgin and doctor, Memorial.

1523. At Jerusalem St. Ignatius was maltreated on Mount Olivet ty the Armenian servant of the Franciscans, but was consoled by a vision of our Blessed Lord.

1582. At Avila the death of St. Teresa, the first day of the new Gregorian calendar. She always wished to have Jesuit confessors and spoke of the Fathers as Benedicti homines Societatis Jesu.

1917. Pope Benedict XV founds the Pontifical Oriental Institute which is later entrusted to the Society of Jesus. Motu Proprio, Orientis Catholicae.

2012 Canonization of James Bertieu. October 16 Hedwig, religious, and Margaret Mary Alacoque, virgin, optional memorials. St. Claude assisted St. Margaret Mary.

October 16

1594. Students of the English College in Rome broke into a sort of rebellion against the Jesuits in charge. It was incited by Protestants and lasted five years.

1788. The Bollandists are forced to give up their work, because of the effects of the Suppression.

1918. The death of James Lonergan, S.J. He had a seventeen year regency at Spring Hill College.

1927. The opening of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem.

1944. John Svensson + Author of children’s literature. His books were translated into 30 languages.

1992. The University of San Francisco holds a symposium on the Chinese Rites controversy.

October 17

1578. At S. Andrea, Rome, the entrance into the Society of Robert Southwell, aged sixteen. 1651. Emmanuel Sigueira enters the novitiate of S. Andrea in Rome. He will be the first Chinese Jesuit priest.

1688. Domenico Zipoli, S.J. is born. An organist at the Gesu in Rome, he was a missionary and composer in Paraguay and Argentina, in the Jesuit Reductions. He was never ordained because of the distance from an ordaining bishop.

1690. St. Margaret Mary +. St. Claude was her director.

1782. Jesuits in White Russia elect Stanislaus Czerniewicz as Vicar General of the Society. 1996. Richard Michael Fernando, S.J. + scholastic, age 26, working with Jesuit Refugee Service, in Cambodia, is killed by a hand grenade thrown by a disturbed ex-student, as Richard tries to save others lives.

2002. Richard McSorley, S.J. dies, age 88. Social justice and non-violence.

October 18

Alaska Day. It is transferred to the USA from Russia on this day, in 1867. Jesuits advised Seward to make the purchase.

1550. The first Jesuit is appointed to be Rector/President of a University as Peter Canisius is elected to that office at the University of Ingolstadt (for a six month term).

1553. A theological course was opened in our college in Lisbon. 400 students were at once enrolled.

1574. The opening of the first Jesuit College in Mexico, SS. Peter and Paul.

1604. Collegio Santa Fe Opens in Bogota, Columbia, the oldest in Columbia and the third oldest in the Americas, after Lima and Mexico.

1605. In Spain died Father John Rico, a most eloquent preacher. St. Alphonsus Rodriguez once told him he would suffer in Purgatory for preaching in the polished Castilian tongue: thenceforth the Father never used Castilian.

1646. The martrydom of St. Isaac Jogues at Auriesville, NY.

1904. “Saint Louis University Day” at the World’s Fair, the culmination of the school’s diamond jubilee celebrations.

1932. Weston College is given a charter, Pontifical Status, and thus allowed to grant ecclesiastical degrees.

1977. Harry Sievers, S.J. + historian of Indiana, and biographer of William Henry Harrison.