184 Rome, Sant'Ignazio di Loyola: my second favourite church in the world

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I am in Rome right now and visiting churches. But quite often, between visiting a church and putting it up on the blog, many months can pass, since I have a backlog of over two hundred. I let this one jump the queue because it was so breathtaking. The trompe-l’oeil ceiling, one of the largest frescoes in the world,  would convince you it was sculpted not painted. It shows the divine light coming from God and then getting spread around the various continents by St Ignatius, by means of the Jesuits, the order he founded.


They have quite a history, the Jesuits. Founded in 1540, they wandered around the world spreading the gospel, often translating it into dozens of local languages, some of which had never been written down before. They were also involved in protecting locals from European slave- traders, for example in Paraguay (though they did bad stuff too).


They were directly responsible to the pope, but by the 1770s was getting very powerful indeed (in some parts of South America they were actually the government). Under pressure from Catholic monarchs, the pope abolished the Jesuit order in 1773. They were allowed to operate again in 1814.


I can’t go into much of the history of the Jesuits, which is complex and controversial, to say the least. But this church, mostly built and decorated by Jesuits, is exceptionally beautiful.

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