“We Are Ignatian” - The young Ignatius

“We Are Ignatian”

The young Ignatius

{words and image from statue artist – Meliesa Judge, Liquid Metal Studios, Adelaide}

The profundity and breadth of St Ignatius’ legacy, and the strength of the Institute (the “Jesuits”) he engendered, leads us to think of him as complete, as the mature thinker, the man of action, the directed and self assured adult. It is interesting to contemplate Ignatius as a young man, as potential still coming into being.

In our school sculpture we see him at the start of the journey - still not knowing where his feet will take him, wrong turns and missed directions still ahead, along with the achievements, the formation, the power of the man he became. We see him listening for the voice of God, of Our Lady.

This is a time before his friends became followers, before his direction was clear. This is the moment when he has taken those first (painful and broken) steps in the direction of his (still unknown) destiny.

Laying down his sword and shield

In the sculpture we see the young man, the swordsman, the attractive young nobleman, the courtier, the fighter, - at the point of time where he has consciously and deliberately laid down the instruments of violence - his sword and shield, at the feet of the Virgin. He has put aside his rich robes and donned the robe of a beggar, simultaneously laying aside a life of chivalry, of wealth and privilege. He then steps out, into an unknown future, in some ways naked, stripped of his past, stripped of his identification, his image and his status in society. Knowing only his desire to dedicate his life to God. Not yet knowing how, or even quite what , that will mean, what that will ask of him. He then walks from Montserrat to Manresa entering an era of meditative transformation.

Mr Paul Lewis

Deputy Principal - Staff, Identity and Operations