An important turning point during the convalescence of Saint Ignatius was reading a copy of the Flos Sanctorum. Among the many lives of saints narrated there, two, in particular, seemed to stand out for the wounded soldier, prompting him to wonder: “What if I did what Saint Francis did or Saint Dominic did?” And this precisely is what he would eventually do later on by founding his own religious Order, the Society of Jesus.
While they are sometimes pitted against each other, especially in jokes, there may actually be more similarities between Dominic and Ignatius and their spiritual families than we usually notice. (Apologies to my Franciscan friends as I am not as familiar with your tradition).
1. Both Dominic and Ignatius were born of the lower nobility. They both had very pious mothers (and presumably not as pious fathers?). Both would also develop a special devotion to Our Lady and would experience her maternal closeness at crucial moments in their life.
2. Both saints travelled a lot. Both saints also studied a lot and would emphasize study in the formation of their followers as a preparation for and continuing aid in ministry. Not surprisingly, both would have celebrated preachers, doctors and theologians among their spiritual children. Their Orders would also establish and run some of the best schools and universities until today.
3. Both saints prayed a lot. Now almost all the saints did that of course. But both Dominic and Ignatius saw the crucial role of the body in prayer. The former had his nine prayer postures observed by his fellow friars while the latter would go to great lengths to engage the body in prayer in the “Spiritual Exercises.”
4. Both Founders embodied the vital link between contemplation and mission, prayer and service, and would pass it on as an essential part of their charism. For Dominicans, spirituality is the soul of preaching and contemplation overflows to sharing the fruits of contemplation with others. For Jesuits, one’s familiar relationship with God nurtured through prayer becomes the source of inspiration and the basis of discernment in the apostolate.
5. Both were very fastidious about gospel poverty. It was one of the things that Dominic reminded the friars about in his deathbed and Ignatius was keen that the Society never change its strict rules on poverty, except to make them stricter.
6. Both were persons of dialogue. Saint Dominic famously spent an entire night conversing with a heretic, listening to his views and patiently responding to them. Saint Ignatius was hotheaded at the beginning and even wanted to kill a Moor who questioned the virginity of Our Lady, but we see a different man as he wrote his advice to the Jesuits attending the Council of Trent, telling them to speak less and listen more.
7. Both Orders draw inspiration from the image of fire connected to their Founders. Taken from a dream of Saint Dominic’s mother, one of the main emblems of the Dominicans is a hound bearing a flaming torch that illumines the world. On the other hand, one of the oft-quoted lines of Ignatius is “Ite, inflammate omnia.” Go and set the world on fire.
These are just a few I can think of. Please feel free to add some more. And may we in turn who look up to these great saints be also graced with something of them in ourselves.
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