Today is the anniversary of the canonization of Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier in 1622.  Teresa of Avila and Philip Neri were also canonized on that day, making March 12, 1622, possibly the greatest day in the history of canonizations.

The painting above by the Jesuit Andrea Pozzo depicts Ignatius sending Xavier to the missions in the Far East.  They never saw each other again, but their love for each other remained strong.  Xavier once wrote this to Ignatius:

God our Lord knows how much my soul was consoled on receiving news of your life and health, which I cherish so highly…Your Holy Charity has written to me that you have a great desire to see me before you leave this life. God knows what an impression these words of great love made upon my soul, and how many tears they have cost me whenever I recall them; and it seems to me that I shall have this consolation since nothing is impossible to holy obedience.

At his People for Others blog, my friend Paul Campbell has trouble coming up with “five fun facts” about Ignatius Loyola.  One of them is the fact that Ignatius was hauled up several times before the Spanish Inquisition.

This got me thinking about the personalities of saints.  There aren’t many  “fun” facts about Ignatius because Ignatius was probably not much of a fun guy.  I think he was pretty intense.  He seems to have had a charismatic personality and a wonderful gift for friendship.  But he was probably more at home in intense one-on-one conversation than circulating at a cocktail party.

One of Ignatius’ great friends was Philip Neri, a fun-loving Italian who loved practical jokes and wisecracks.  Philip was a great evangelist in Rome who founded the Oratory congregation.  He often did outrageous things.  He would dress as a clown, tell jokes to somber visitors, and walk in the streets with a bouquet of flowers and a cushion on his head.  He would shave half his beard off and enjoy watching people’s reactions. Ignatius said that he wanted Philip in the Society of Jesus.  It seems that Philip did apply.  But for some reason it never happened.  Maybe the Jesuits weren’t enough fun.

A blogger named Chris Hoyt has drawn a couple of comic strips about Philip. View them here.