Cannon blasts and saints

At Mass today on the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the visiting priest talked about this saint's great zeal. He said that Ignatius first went to join the Franciscans but they sent him away out of fear that his zeal for the Lord would stir up a religious war. I haven't been able to confirm these precise details but he did spend a brief period of time with the Franciscans and they did send him away.

Rather than becoming a Franciscan, Ignatius went on to found the Society of Jesus which was approved by the pope in 1540. This is the important point, as far as Pier Giorgio Frassati is concerned.

Some 370 years later (give or take a few), the Jesuit Fathers at the Isituto Sociale in Turin, Italy, would welcome a new pupil who came to them only because he failed Latin: 12-year-old Pier Giorgio. The impact of the Jesuit Fathers on Pier Giorgio's sacramental life is well known. Particularly, they deserve credit for helping his deep devotion to the Blessed Sacrament both form and flourish. But the real credit, it seems, belongs to a cannon blast!

Before his religious conversion, Ignatius was a decorated soldier. According to tradition, during the Battle of Pamplona, a cannon ball ricocheted off of a wall and shattered Ignatius' right leg. This required several surgeries which left him with a limp and ended his military career.  During his long recuperation, he experienced his deep conversion. In short, without that cannon ball, there might not ever have been the Jesuit Fathers in Torino in 1913 to instill in a young Pier Giorgio the desire to receive the Lord daily in the Eucharist.

There is an amusing twist to this story. When Pier Giorgio founded the Tipi Loschi Society in 1924, a friendly expression took on a life of its own as a way for the members to greet each other. Pier Giorgio would often end letters to friends like this:

"Cordial greetings and terroristic cannon blasts: boom! boom! boom! from Pier Giorgio Frassati"

This expression had nothing to do with St. Ignatius of Loyola. But "cannon blasts" became a little inside joke for Pier Giorgio and his friends.  This carried over decades later to his beatification in 1990 when chants of "Boom! Boom!" could be heard coming from the young people in attendance on the piazza of the Basilica of St. Peter.

I think it's safe to say that Pier Giorgio most admired those saints and figures who were zealous for the Church. This was a big factor in his choosing the name of Girolamo Savonarola when he took vows as a Lay Dominican. The fact that Saint Ignatius was known for his zeal would have alone made him attractive to Pier Giorgio. The fact that his life was forever changed by a cannon blast would have endeared him to Pier Giorgio.

What God can do with one cannon ball should put a "Boom! Boom!" on our lips and a smile on our faces.  Ad majorem Dei gloriam.

Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, pray for us!

Verso l'alto!  ///cmw