A cannonball to the leg launched the Jesuits

Ignatius of Loyola was a professional Basque soldier when a cannonball shattered his leg at the defense of Pamplona in 1521. Bedridden for months, he read the devotional books at hand and resolved to leave soldiering for religious life. Nineteen years later, in 1540, the pope formally approved the order he founded — the Society of Jesus.

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