Reading makes saints!
St. Ignatius of Loyola St. Josemaria Escriva, Founder of Opus Dei, once said: “Reading has made many saints!” This is what came to mind today as I reflected on the life of St. Ignatius of Loyola and how a book changed his life. Ignatius was a solider in the Spanish army fighting against the French when a cannon ball and a series of bad operations ended his military career in 1521 and left him confined to bed for a long recovery period. It was not pain that brought him suffering, it was the boredom. During his days of recovery he asked for books on chivalry, his favourite reading, but there were no such romances in the Loyola castle. So instead he was given the only books in the house -- one was a Life of Christ by Ludolph, a Carthusian monk, and the other was Flos sanctorum , a collection of lives of the saints. Iñigo set about reading them, and as it happened, this was the most important reading he would ever do. During his convalescence Iñigo reflected on the books he read ...