As seen already, the piety of Inigo (St Ignatius of Loyola) from childhood was imbued with a deep and tender devotion to the Mother of God. Even in his wild days, he would turn to her at critical times, as when he was about to fight a duel. A vision of her during the first stage of his conversion at Loyola confirmed him in his good resolutions and filled him with loathing for his past sins against purity. Then he copied her words from the Gospels into his notebook, writing them as beautifully as he could, and all in distinctive blue. On his feet again, his first business was to visit her shrine at Aránzazu. To her he made his vow of chastity on the road to Montserrat, and for her honor he strove with the Moor. On the holy mountain, he kept his vigil before her altar, and surrendered to her there his sword, as token of his undying loyalty. At Manresa, he said her Office daily and prayed at every altar to her that he could find. In storms at sea, we may be very sure that no one sang Salve Regina with fuller heart than he did, and that on his journeyings by land in Spain and Italy her wayside shrines were the only milestones he reckoned with at all. Hercules, Hector, Achilles, Socrates, Plato, Horace, and the rest of them are given liberal mention in the Manual of Erasmus, but the name of Holy Mary occurs in 287 pages only once and that in an equivocal context. No wonder that the humble and loving heart of Inigo felt frozen. –Saint Ignatius of Loyola: The Pilgrim Years 1491-1538 by James Broderick S.J.

Now, with deepest respect to Ignatius, things were far from being as simple as that. It is surprising that he did not at least mention a detail recorded by both Füssli and Hagen. No sooner did the pilgrims, crowded in the bows of the ship, sight the coast of Palestine than they joyfully burst into the Te Deum and the Salve Regina. The Salve had long been adopted as the special hymn of mariners and other sea-faring folk. The sailors on the Santa María of Columbus sang it lustily when the New World first dawned on their sight. It was indeed their customary prayer and the prayer of all sailing men when the shades of night began to close in on their little ships, isolated in the vast, unpredictable sea. –‘St Ignatius of Loyola: The Pilgrim Years’ by James Brodrick, S.J.

…telling himself (St Ignatius) that he would neither eat nor drink until God came to his rescue or he saw himself to be at the point of death; because if he were to find himself so far in extremis that unless he took food he must forthwith die…This resolution he made on a Sunday, after receiving Holy Communion, and all that week he put nothing in his mouth, persevering at the same time in his customary exercises, and likewise attending the divine offices and making his prayer on his knees, even at midnight, etc. He was accustomed to tell his confessor in minute detail everything he did, so when the following Sunday came round and it was time for him to go to confession, he let him know also that he had eaten nothing during that week. The confessor¹ ordered him to break his fast and, though he felt strong enough, he nevertheless obeyed, to find himself free from scruples that day and the next. But the third day, Tuesday, while he was at prayer, he began remembering his sins and, as if he were threading beads, went on thinking of sin after sin of his past life, and it seemed to him that he was under obligation to confess them once more. At the end of this process, he began to feel a loathing for the life which he led, and a strong impulse to abandon it. With that, it pleased the Lord that he awoke as if from a dream. As he already had some experience in the discernment of spirits from the lessons which God had given him, he began to examine by what means that spirit [of scrupulosity] had come upon him; and so he resolved in full clarity of mind not to confess anything of the past ever again. From that day on he remained free from scruples such as had tormented him, holding it for certain that our Lord had been pleased to deliver him by His mercy.”

‘Saint Ignatius of Loyola: The Pilgrim Years 1491-1538’

The third time is one of tranquility, when one considers first for what purpose man is born, that is to praise God our Lord and save his soul, and, desiring this, chooses as a means to this end some life or state within the bonds of the church, so that he may be helped in the service of his Lord and the salvation of his soul. I said a tranquil time, that is, when the soul is not agitated by different spirits, and uses its natural powers freely and tranquilly.

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Without any disordered attachment, so that I am not more inclined or disposed to accept the thing before me than to refuse it, nor to refuse it rather than accept it, but that I find myself like a balance at equilibrium, ready to follow whatever I perceive to be more for the glory and praise of God our Lord and the salvation of my soul.

St Ignatius ‘Spiritual Exercises’