The Jesuits Trivia Quiz

Answer: Soldier

Ignatius Loyola had been a soldier, who was severely injured in the Battle of Pamplona. A cannonball had hit his legs, and subsequent operations left him with a pronounced limp that made him unfit for service.

During his recovery he supposedly had visions and experienced a spiritual conversion. He made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land; and later, while studying in Paris, he formed the Society of Jesus with six friends. The order was approved by the Pope in 1540, and Loyola led it until his death in 1556.

He wrote the "Spiritual Exercises", which is still used today, for his fellow priests, and is famed for his quote, "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?"

Answer: Francis Xavier

Francis Xavier (1506-1552) was one of the original six members of the Jesuits. He was sent first to minister to Portuguese territories in the Far East, including parts of India and Malacca. Although conversion of the native population was the ultimate goal, he had to first curb some of the abuses and practices of the Portuguese settlers. He later attempted to introduce Christianity to Japan and died while preparing to go to China. Many of the missionaries were accomplished linguists who compiled dictionaries of the oriental languages and helped bring an interchange between the Western and Eastern worlds.

Aloysius Gonzaga was a young Jesuit who died ministering to the ill. Peter Claver served in Colombia, and Isaac Jogues was martyred in French Canada. All three were also Jesuits.

Answer: His role in the Galileo inquisition

Robert Bellarmine (1542 - 1621) was an Italian Jesuit theologian who was instrumental in enforcing the decrees of the Council of Trent to reform the Catholic Church. In one of his roles as Cardinal Inquisitor he examined Galileo and declared his heliocentric theory as counter to the teaching of the Church. He also served as one of the judges in the trial of Giordano Bruno, who was later burned at the stake for heresy.

Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky and high schools in San Jose, California and Tacoma, Washington are named in his honor. He was later named as a Doctor of the Church, one of only 36 people so honored, and canonized in 1930.

Answer: Jacques Marquette

Jacques Marquette (1637 - 1675) was born in Laon, France and assigned as a missionary to New France (Quebec). He was a gifted linguist and heard a rumor from local Indians about a mighty river to the south. He petitioned authorities in Quebec to explore the river and was part of the expedition of Louis Jolliet.

They traveled to within 435 miles of the Gulf of Mexico on the Mississippi River before returning. Jolliet returned to Quebec to inform authorities of their discovery while Marquette wintered in what is now Chicago. Unfortunately Marquette died soon afterwards from dysentery, which he had contracted on the expedition.

Answer: Peter Claver

Peter Claver (1580 - 1654) was born in the Catalonia region of Spain and arrived at Cartagena, Colombia in 1610. He continued the work of Father Alonso Sandoval of ministering to slaves imported to Cartagena, the slave trading hub of New Granada. Father Claver met slave trading ships and brought medicine, food, and comfort to the frightened captives.

He visited plantations to assist the slaves and protested their treatment to authorities. During his lifetime it's estimated he baptized over 300,000 slaves and many schools serving predominately African Americans have been named in his honor.

Answer: She provided a haven when the Jesuits were banned in Europe.

Due to rivalries within the Catholic Church, Pope Clement XIII ordered the suppression of the Jesuit order in 1773, and they were not restored until 1814 by Pope Pius VII. During that time all property owned by the order was confiscated and all Jesuit priests were forced to leave the order. The only countries not following this proclamation were Prussia and Russia. Catherine the Great allowed the Jesuits to continue in Russia and newly-acquired Poland during that time, protecting the leaders of the order.

The Jesuits were also later banned from Switzerland (1848 - 1973), Norway (1814 - 1956), Mexico (1767 - 1840), and Republican Spain (1932 - 1938) by order of these Governments.

Answer: Notre Dame (Indiana)

Many Jesuit universities are named after noteworthy Jesuits (Loyola, Gonzaga, Xavier, John Carroll, Marquette, Canisius, and Bellarmine). Others are named for their home city and not readily identifiable as Jesuit or even Catholic universities (San Francisco, San Diego, Santa Clara, Seattle, St Louis, Fairfield, Dayton, Scanton, and Detroit Mercy among others). In total, the Jesuits have founded and managed 190 universities worldwide.

Notre Dame is a well known Catholic university that was established by the Congregation of the Holy Cross religious order.

Answer: Pierre Teilhard Chardin

Teilhard Chardin (1881-1955) was involved in scientific investigations in Spain, China, Africa, and Indonesia. He was a member of the expedition which discovered the "Peking Man". His writings attempted to unite the scientific case of evolution with his religious beliefs, which led to conflicts with both church authorities and some fellow scientists.

In 1932 he was required to discuss his works with the Congregation for the Doctrines of the Faith for potential heresies, and in 1935 his Jesuit superiors forbade him to teach. Rome banned one of his works in 1937 and forbade him to teach or write in 1941. In 1955 he was not allowed to attend the International Congress of Paleontology by his Jesuit superiors and in 1957 his books could not be sold in Catholic bookstores. Even at that time he had strong defenders within the Catholic Church.

Maritain was an eminent French Catholic philosopher, who was neither a priest, nor at odds with catholic authorities.

Answer: Gerard Manley Hopkins

Hopkins (1844 - 1889) practiced asceticism and suffered from melancholy for most of his life. He converted to Catholicism while at Balliol College Oxford and decided to become a Jesuit soon afterwards.

Throughout life he struggled with what he saw as conflicts between his religious life and artistic life. In 1868 he burned all his poems and did not write for seven years, since he felt that poetry kept him from devoting time to his religious calling. He wrote poetry again when his religious superior asked him to write a poem commemorating the loss of the ship "The Deutschland".

Hopkins's most influential contribution to poetry was a deviation from the poetic meter of that time that eventually led to free verse and more modern poetic styles.

Most of Hopkins's work was published posthumously by his lifelong friend from college days, Robert Bridges - a future poet laureate of England. Bridges had earlier received copies of many of the poems Hopkins had burned and included them with Hopkins's later works.

Answer: Paraguay

Between the 16th and 18th centuries the Jesuits established reductions intended to protect the native population from slavery and abuses by the colonial settlers. The most famous were called the Rio de la Plata reducciones, which were found in modern day Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina.

The reduction was under nominal control of the Indian leader, although the Jesuits probably exercised overall paternalistic control. These settlements were generally successful and posed an economic and political threat to the European settlers. The reductions were forced to create military forces to defend the natives against slave traders from Sao Paulo.

When the Jesuit order was suppressed in Europe, the Spanish king removed the Jesuits in South America. Some of the reductions were transferred to the control of the Franciscans, but eventually all fell into disuse and most are in ruins.