Chicago College of Dental Surgery - Dentos Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

Page 8 text:

the tradition of sound scholarship in theology and the arts, and the careful mental training in philosophy and the sciences, which has been the heritage cy' the Yesuits these last four centuries. In the earbf days of the Society when Renaissance and Humanistic studies were the inspiration of scholars, the :fesuits came to formulate their cultural work on the foundations W' Humanistic studies. The Yesuit system U education is embodied in the Ratio Studiorum-fl Method of Study, the first printed copy of which was circulated as early as 1586. Its whole spirit-and the whole spirit cy' fesuit education-may be reduced to two old proverbs: Mens sana in corpore sano-a sound mind in a healthy body and Non multa sed multum-not many things but afew well known. The matter comprising the studies in Yesuit schools is therefore humanistic and includes the ancient classics-Latin and Greek, the Sciences, Mathettzatics and Histoty. Less cfort is made to read widelyq rather the idea is to analyze, interpret and appreciate. In the yield cy' intellectual endeavor the fesuits have been outstanding during the past four centuries. Twenty thousand members of the Society have been writers who have enriched worthily the cultural content W' the race. The topics covered by these productions are as various as the possible jield zyf learning from theology, through the arts and sciences, to the lighter forms :yi belles-lettres. One Q' the carb! ffesuits, Father Athanasius Kircher, did such lasting work in the sciences that geophysics, physics and medicine are still under obligations cy' respect and veneration. Bellarmine, Suarez, the Bollandists and countless others have enriched the treasury qi the World's knowledge fo a degree rarely, ever approached by any similar organization. In addition to their educational activities, the 7esuits devote themselves to missionary and retreat work. For four centuries these soldiers of Ignatius have gone out not to conquer a wilderness fy' the material kind but the hearts and minds W men who had strayed far from moral paths. This the ffesuits have done through the Spiritual Exercises formulated by Ignatius of Loyola. These are an organic training in the laws of spiritual life and, since the time qt Ignatius, have been the staple form of intense religious reawakening in missions and retreats. Not to the temples of learning or religion did this Company of Yesus conjfne its activities. It was founded at the zenith cy' an era of discovery. A new route to the Indies and to the Orient had shortbf before been opened. Two huge continents, North ana' South America, had just been discovered. sind to this New World, as well as to the far corners of the old one, the soldiers V ,Q '99 O K-3290 K Q1

Page 7 text:

A s a religious order the Society qffesus belongs to that larger form W' religious lye which has characterized the activity of the Catholic Church from its earlv days. Specyicallv, the Yesuitsform an order cy' priests organized for apostolic work, following a faced spiritual rule and depending for their material support on alms and free will oferings. It may be said that the spirit of the 7esuit Order is a military spirit because its founder was a Spanish knight with the training appropriate in the Middle Ages to that station. As a knight he had been bred in the ideals of chivalnv which denoted two main virtues: an intense loyalty to the person of the leader and an unflinching bravery against the foe. .fit first Ignatius in Loyola wished to call his organization the Company cy' jesus , perhaps because that term remained with him from his military career but more lilzebv because the members cy' this company were to give unfailing loyalty to their Leader and to be His companions in the battles they would wage against His enemies. Through the vows which Yesuits take as members of a religious order, they pledge themselves to copy the character Q' their Leader, to adopt His principles and to judge by His standards. .fftjirst it had been the plan q' Ignatius of Loyola to go with his nine com- panions to the Holy Land, there to labor for the spiritual weyare of the people. Thwarted in this plan, he and his followers put themselves at the disposal cy' the Pope to do his bidding in any critical situation thus becoming soldiers for the defense and propagation of the Faith. I Under the spell cj these lefty ideals Ignatius drew up with the authorization of the Pope a body cy' rules and a constitution that were to give form and direction to the new religious order. This was four 4 centuries ago. The form of government in the Society is a consti- 1 tutional monarchy. The chief commander is elected for life in his Qfice Q' General qt the Order. The supreme legislative assem- blv in the Society is the General Congregation which is summoned by the General when needed or by the Vicar-General in the case of the death of the General when a new one is to be elected. Membership in this General Congregation is drawn from the dnferent provinces cj the Society through local elections of delegates. To this day the constitutions of the early Society remain substantially un- changed. The membership of the new order grew rapidb' and inaugurated 0 I 0 Q0 . CMAJ, Q Qnwilyxbgi Q JJ KJ R-dokijfobz-4Z,2f,1?'K5Jjg J GCTB-.

Page 9 text:

of Ignatius took their flag. To India, Ceylon, Yapan, China and lllalacca went the heroic band of ffesuits under Francis Xavier, bringing uncounted thousands to the banner Q' the Leader. Into the wilderness of the New World went the soldiers of Ignatius to build a vast spiritual empire. Into the desolate reaches rj northern Canada, into the fertile plains and valleys wi the llflississippi marched the Black Robes. Through the almost unendurable agony of harsh winters, through the dis- integrating heat M the summers, through the perils Q' wilderness and through the savagety cy' many Indian tribes these priest heroes fought their way to write a glorious chapter in flmerican history. They explored the new lands, painstakingly made maps cy' the routes which their hardships had opened for them and left the invaluable source book of carb 1-Imerican history that we know as the Jesuit Relations. The history of our own Midwest could not be written except in terms of the achievements of these early Yesuits. Mar'quette-who made his perilous journey down the hVisconsin and Mi.r.rissippi rivers, through the Illinois, touching very close to what is now metropolitan Chicago. Brebeuf-who closed his days of exploration in the New World under the tomahawks ty' the red men. ffogues-whose sainted hands bore the cruel marks Q' Indian torture even btyfore the tomahawks brought him to his death in the country to which he had dedicated his lye in the service of his Leader. Alnd there are many others in whose debt the New lforld will . always remain. In the far lands the same story was being written. 4 The gentle Xavier died alone in Sancian after bringing the faith to more than one million souls s and to fifty-two kingdoms. In Mexico schools and colleges were established long before the English colonists had even begun to settle along the .fitlantic border. In South America the 7esuits established what was probably the finest type of communal We in modern centuries-the Reductions rj Paraguay. Wherever the Black Robe marched, there arose hospitals and charitable centers, schools and colleges, until his contribution to this development fy' civilization becomes inestimable. Even in this modern day, the heroic traditions cy' the members of the Company M -'Tesus remain unchanged. There are t-wentyyive thousand soldiers of Ignatius scattered over the world, with more than Jive thousand 'f,5fxf ! frfaiieisiieifu. I ft 0 ,J o DEQ 0 0 . G