Society of Jesus

The Society of Jesus (Societas Iesu/Jesu (S.J.) in Latin) is a Christian religious order of the Roman Catholic Church in direct service to the Pope. Its members, known as Jesuits since the Protestant Reformation, have been called "Footsoldiers of the Pope" in part because the Society's founder, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, was a Basque nobleman and soldier before his conversion. Today, Jesuits number over 20,000 and comprise the largest religious order in the Catholic Church. Jesuit priests and brothers are engaged in ministries in 112 nations on six continents. Their work is focused on education and intellectual contributions, primarily at colleges and universities.

Famous Jesuits

Among many distinguished early Jesuits was St. Francis Xavier, a missionary to Asia who converted more people to Catholicism than anyone in Catholic history before him.

Related Topics:
St. Francis Xavier - Asia

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Other famous Jesuits include:

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• Francois d'Aguillon
• Giulio Alenio
• Jean Joseph Marie Amiot
• José de Anchieta, founder of Sao Paulo, Brazil
• Juan Andres
• Pedro Arrupe, Former General of the Order
• Xabier Arzalluz, left the order
• Jakob Balde
• Abbé Augustin Barruél
• St. Robert Bellarmine, Doctor of the Church
• St. John Berchmans
• Daniel Berrigan
• St. Andrew Bobola
• Ruđer Josip Bošković aka Roger Boscovich
• Giovanni Botero, Italian thinker, discharged from the society in 1579
• Louis Bourdaloue
• St. Edmund Campion, English martyr
• St. Petrus Canisius, Doctor of the Church
• John Carroll, first bishop of the United States
• Giuseppe Castiglione
• Michel de Certeau
• St. Peter Claver, Saint to the Slave Ships in South America
• Frederick Copleston, English writer of History of Western Philosophy (vol 1-12)
• Jacques Courtois
• John Dear
• Horacio De La Costa Philippine historian.
• Jeremiah Delgado
• Alfred Delp, German Jesuit who was hanged for his opposition to Hitler
• Alexandre de Rhodes
• Robert Drinan, only Catholic priest ever to serve in the US Congress
• Avery Dulles, American theologian and cardinal
• Jacques Dupuis, Belgian theologian and expert on Inter-Religious Diologue
• Ignacio Ellacuría, Rector of University of Central America, El Salvador - shot dead in 1989
• Peter Faber, Companion of Ignatius
• Father Leonard Feeney
• Luis Frois
• St. Henry Garnett, First English Provincial, executed after being falsely blamed for the 'Gunpowder Plot'
• Heiner Geißler
• St. Aloysius Gonzaga
• Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet
• Eusebio Francisco Kino
• Athanasius Kircher
• Bernard Lonergan, Canadian philosopher and theologian
• Amando López
• Joaquín López y López
• Louis Maimbourg
• Ignacio Martín-Baró
• Segundo Montes
• Juan Ramón Moreno
• Rick "Mugs" Malloy
• Jacques Marquette
• Anthony de Mello, Indian Spiritual Writer
• John Courtney Murray, drafter of the Second Vatican Council
• Roberto de Nobili, missionary to India
• Manoel da Nóbrega, Portuguese Jesuit, founder of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
• Walter J. Ong, American cultural historian and spiritual writer
• Karl Rahner, theologian
• Matteo Ricci, missionary to China
• St. José María Rubio, Spanish Jesuit, canonised by the late Pope John Paul II in 2003
• Thomas Ewing Sherman, the son of a US Civil War General
• Ignacije Szentmartony, Croatian mathematician and Astronomer
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, French paleontologist and spiritual writer
• Frans Jozef van Beeck, theologian
• José María Vélaz, founder of Fe y Alegria.
• Ferdinand Verbiest, Belgian missionary to China
• Johann Adam Schall von Bell
• Oswald von Nell-Breuning
• Edmund A. Walsh
• St. Francis Xavier, Spanish Jesuit, missionary in India
• Alessandro Valignano, Italian Jesuit, missionary to Japan
• Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder, an expert in the Old Javanese language and literature

See also: the Canadian Martyrs.

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