Ignatius of Loyola – Alone and Standing

Since its appearance, this work has been published in constant succession, enchanting the reader from the first sentence. Ignacio Tellechea has dug up the archives of half of Spain in the 16th century to trace the essential biography of a nobleman and poor wanderer who, “alone and on foot”, travels the roads of the Iberian Peninsula and Europe with the sole desire of reaching Jerusalem, eager to follow in the footsteps of the Lord. Page after page, we witness the wonder of seeing Íñigo de Azpeitia talking to people, rolling through inns and paths, begging and eating “what they give him and when they give it to him”. People know him as “the bogeyman” and children as “l'ome sant”, although for some he begins to seem like an undesirable madman. Having reached the city where Jesus died, he returns to Rome, which “is also Jerusalem”, until one autumn day in 1556 he dies “in a natural way”, according to a witness. This beautiful and rigorous biography of Ignatius, the youngest son of the Loyolas, is reduced to this constant journey, between joys and setbacks.

JOSÉ IGNACIO TELLECHEA

430