Catholic religious order* of men founded in 1540 by Ignatius of Loyola* and a small group of his multinational “friends in the Lord,” fellow students from the University of Paris. They saw their mission as one of being available to go anywhere and do anything to “help souls,”
especially where the need was greatest (e.g., where a certain people or a certain kind of work were neglected).
Today, numbering about 23,000 priests and brothers, they are spread out in almost every country of the world (“more branch offices,” said Pedro Arrupe,* “than Coca Cola”)–declining in numbers markedly in Europe and North America, but growing in India, Africa, Latin America, and the Far East.
The abbreviation “S.J.” after a person’s name means that he is a member of the Society of Jesus.
