He was born in Loyola (Spain) in 1491. He was the founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).
He grew up never applying himself too much to his studies, preferring entertainments such as dancing
and singing.
Until 1517 he lived a comfortable life.
Then, he participated in the defense of the city of Pamplona, which was attacked by the French King Francesco I and was severely wounded in one leg, After much care and suffering, he was left lame.
During the long days of his hospitalization, he read some famous lives of saints and began his religious conversion.
He visited the Holy Land and the Benedictine monastery of Monserrat where, in 1522,
entered leaving his military clothes behind. In 1534 he founded the Society of Jesus.
He died in Rome on July 31, 1556, and was proclaimed a saint in 1622.
The new religious order was approved on September 3, 1539, by Pope Paul III at the Rocca Pia in Tivoli, where he was on vacation, after Ignatius had waited in Tivoli several weeks before being received by the pontiff.
It was during those years that a bloody dispute arose between the Castellani
(inhabitants of Castel Madama) and the Tiburtini, because of taxes to be paid for the transit of goods through Tivoli.
In 1540 the Castellans set fire to Porta San Giovanni (near the Tivoli Hospital).
The Tiburtines, after they had avenged themselves, rebuilt the Gate on which they wrote, “Ignitas portas extinsit sanguine Tibur” meaning “Tivoli extinguished with blood the burned doors.”
Cardinal Bartolmeo della Queva tried to calm tempers, but only Ignatius’ intervention finally succeeded in restoring peace.
The cardinal, among other things, reclaimed the area of the springs of the Acque Albule, creating an outflow channel to the Aniene River.
Rocca Pia was built by Papa Pio II (Enea Silvio Piccolomini) in 1461, straddling the city walls built by Federico I Barbarossa, fortifying and enlarging them, to control the road to Abruzzo but also to dominate the rebellious city of Tivoli.
On the entrance portal to the fortress it says as a warning:
“Grata bonis, invisa malis, inimica superbis sum Tibure: enim sic Pius instituit”
and that is, “Here I am, I am here for you, O Tivoli, well liked by the good, frowned upon by the wicked, an enemy to the proud: for Pius II so willed.”
