The Jesuit order was founded in 1539 in Rome (Italy) by Ignacio de Loyola, a former nobleman of the Basque noble family of Azpeitia (Guipuzcoa), who found faith after being wounded during a battle in Pamplona in 1521, and approved by the Holy See in 1540, following the bull of Pope Paul III 'Regimini Militants Ecclesiae'.
The Jesuits have an almost military type structure (absolute obedience), a clear mission (to the greater glory of God), a total lack of concern for worldly successes (vain desires).
With the Latin motto 'Ad maiorem Dei gloriam' (To the greater glory of God), the Jesuit order aims to spread the Catholic faith through missions, apostolate, teaching and science.
According to their rules, they work for the evangelization of the world, in defense of the faith and the promotion of justice, in permanent cultural and interreligious dialogue and the engine of the company is to deepen humanistic studies and scientists to deliver them to the schools and colleges that were opening in Europe.
Since its beginning, Jesuits have run the most important centers of higher education in Europe, including the prestigious Roman College, in addition to providing services in countries where the Catholic religion was persecuted or banned.
An important work was the undertaken by the also Basque, San Francisco Javier in his missionary work of conversion in India, Japan and China.
The Jesuits, in addition to the three vows of the religious - poverty, chastity and obedience - profess a fourth, related to the obedience to the Pope, to which they are thus united in a special way.
