When Christopher Hollis published St. Ignatius in 1931, few would have dreamed that a member of Ignatius' famed (and defamed) Company of Jesus would one day be seated on the Chair of Peter. But with the election of Pope Francis, described as "a Jesuit's Jesuit," a re-examination of the life and mission of Ignatius of Loyola could not be more timely. Hollis was part of the Catholic Literary Revival of the first half of the 20th century, an important albeit lesser player in a world of luminaries like Chesterton, Belloc, and Waugh. In his St. Ignatius, a book the author called part "interpretive biography" and part "voyage of discovery, Hollis disdained both the biography of the sceptic and the biography of the pious believer and tried to answer the question "what is the point of being a saint?" The result is an eminently readable and profoundly enlightening study of what Hollis calls the "love affair" of a man who was "in love with God." Pope Francis' frequent references to Ignatius should spark a renewal of interest in this often misunderstood spiritual giant whose goal, according to Hollis, was not so much the refutation of heresies and rolling back of the Protestant Reformation, but, rather, nothing more than "to convert Catholics to Catholicism." Hollis' St. Ignatius—described by the late Fr. Stanley Jaki as a "breathtaking narrative"—is an excellent starting point for those seeking to acquaint—or reacquaint—themselves with this great saint.
     In the Introduction, Francis J. Manion outlines the major themes of St. Ignatius in the context of the New Evangelization, and discusses the importance of Christopher Hollis and his works to the founder of Real View Books, Fr. Stanley Jaki.

By Christopher Hollis  •  Introduction by Francis J. Manion

ISBN 978-1-892539-18-2  •  x + 309 pages  •  softcover