The most painful trial [for the spiritual sons of St. Ignatius] was to leave the house of Rome, where they were able to see their much-beloved Father General, to admire his marvellous sanctity, and to enjoy his paternal tenderness. They were so dearly loved by him that each might think himself to be the favourite child of his heart.
The veneration that the holy founder inspired in all his religious is explicable in view of how God seemed to take pleasure in justifying it. The good fathers collected everything from their holy General that they could manage to get their hands on. They divided his hair cuttings among themselves, scraps of paper on which he had written an order, no longer of use because it had already been carried out – anything that belonged to him or concerned him.
There existed in the Society, from the very first fathers of the foundation, a delightful and poetic belief that increased the tender veneration that the holy founder inspired in all his sons. […]
Fr. Laynez, wanting to know the truth from him, took advantage of his former familiarity with Ignatius and of the trust he had always shown him, and made bold to ask him one day:
“Father, we are all convinced, and there is good reason to believe, that the dear soul of Your Reverence is entrusted to the guard of an Archangel. It is true?
Ignatius of Loyola lowered his eyes, blushed like a criminal, did not respond and was left in the most painful embarrassment.
DAURIGNAC, J. M. S. Santo Inácio de Loyola.
2.ed. Rio de Janeiro: CDB, 2018, p.278; 298-300
