Ignatius Loyola: From Soldier To Saint (SAE 004) Plaque

Saints_Aplenty is celebrating The Ignatian Year (20 May 2021-31 July 2022) which commemorates the conversion of Ignatius Loyola with several new collections! + Five hundred years ago, on May 20, 1521, Ignatius Loyola was wounded at the Battle of Pamplona. A cannonball fired by the enemy French shattered one of his legs and broke the other. That cannonball would change the trajectory of Ignatius’s life setting him on the pathway from soldier to saint. With nothing to do during his long convalescence but read, and with nothing to read but a Bible, a Life of Christ, and a Lives of the Saints book, Ignatius began the process of discerning God’s Will in his life. Ultimately, as the saying goes, the rest is history: He discerned a call to the religious life, to the priesthood, and to Saintdom. + This pastiche, a Saints_Aplenty Exclusive, combines an engraving of Ignatius as an armoured soldier holding a lance and a devotional print of him in Jesuit garb holding a book inscribed with the words “Omnia ad majorem Dei gloriam”, that is, “All things for the greater glory of God”. The rayed background can be viewed in one of two ways: as the muzzle blast of the cannon that wounded Ignatius or as the flash of insight that accompanied his conversion. The cannonball between the May dates highlights its pivotal role in this celebration. + The Ignatian Year will conclude in 2022 on July 31, the Feast of St. Ignatius. + Image Credit (Engraving): Left figure extracted and colourized from a late 19th- century engraving of St. Ignatius Loyola by H[enry] Adlard, after an oil painting in the Church of the Gesù in Rome, from Stewart Roses’s St. Ignatius Loyola and the Early Jesuits (London: Burns and Oates, Ld.; New York: Catholic Publication Society Co., 1891), frontispiece. Henry Adlard (1799-1893) was a prolific British line and stipple engraver and plate printer. His works range from steel engravings of historical landmarks to portraits. He was also a much sought-after expert witness in forgery trials. Incidentally, the painting (or one very much like it) after which Adlard made his engraving is available here on Zazzle at Bridgeman Images. + Image Credit (Devotional Print): Figure extracted and adapted from an antique image of St. Ignatius Loyola, originally published in chromolithography by Josef Müller Art Publisher, Munich and New York, first quarter of the 20th century. + Both the engraving and the devotional print are from the designer’s private collections.