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Church of the Gesu (Tomb of St. Ignatius of Loyola)

Saints & Tombs Not Applicable
Rome, Italy 1568–1580 Feast day: July 31

The tomb of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus.

St. Ignatius of Loyola →
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The Story

The Church of the Gesù in Rome — formally the Church of the Most Holy Name of Jesus — is the mother church of the Society of Jesus and the burial place of its founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola. Built between 1568 and 1580 with the patronage of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, and designed by Vignola with a facade by Giacomo della Porta, it became the architectural prototype for Catholic churches of the Counter-Reformation era across the world. Ignatius (1491–1556) was a Basque nobleman and soldier whose conversion began while recovering from a battle wound, when reading about the life of Christ and the saints turned his ambitions from earthly glory to the service of God. His Spiritual Exercises became one of the most influential works of Christian spirituality, and in 1540 Pope Paul III approved the Society of Jesus, the missionary and teaching order Ignatius founded with his first companions. He spent his last years in rooms adjacent to the site of the Gesù, directing the young order until his death in 1556. Ignatius was canonized by Pope Gregory XV in 1622, together with St. Francis Xavier, St. Teresa of Ávila, St. Philip Neri, and St. Isidore the Farmer. His remains rest beneath the altar of the sumptuous Chapel of St. Ignatius, designed by the Jesuit brother Andrea Pozzo at the end of the seventeenth century; a chapel on the opposite transept holds a celebrated relic of St. Francis Xavier. The Gesù remains a living center of Ignatian spirituality, where pilgrims pray at the founder's tomb, visit the nearby rooms of St. Ignatius preserved as a shrine, and encounter the artistic splendor — including Baciccia's ceiling fresco of the Triumph of the Name of Jesus — that the Jesuits placed at the service of the Gospel.

Church Recognition

St. Ignatius of Loyola was canonized by Pope Gregory XV in 1622; the Gesù is the mother church of the Society of Jesus, and his tomb in the Chapel of St. Ignatius has been a Church-sanctioned place of veneration for centuries.

Catholic Teaching

The tomb of St. Ignatius bears witness to the Church's teaching on religious life and mission — the consecrated life at the service of the Gospel (CCC 914–933) — and to the veneration of the saints and their relics within the communion of saints (CCC 946–962, 1674); Ignatius's motto, "For the greater glory of God," sums up the end for which man is created (CCC 293–294).

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Practical

Additional Information

The mother church of the Jesuits in Rome holds the saint's tomb.

Go Deeper

Visit the official website of the Gesù at https://www.chiesadelgesu.org, which includes the Chapel of St. Ignatius and the adjacent rooms of the saint; read the Spiritual Exercises and the Autobiography of St. Ignatius, and see the Catechism of the Catholic Church on consecrated life (CCC 914–933).

Location

Visit the official website ↗ See it on the interactive map →

In the Area

Other sacred sites within 40 miles.