Blessed Peter Favre, St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Francis Xavier enjoyed a very close friendship, which began at the University of Paris, where the three were roommates. Fr. James Martin, SJ., offers a mediation on the friendship between the three men.
Here was an average man without much prior interest in religious observance, assuming that he could emulate two of the greatest saints in the Christian tradition.
We are missing a powerful and vivid symbol of the love of Jesus, writes Father James Martin. For the Sacred Heart is nothing less than an image of the way that Jesus loves us.
Every Jesuit saint was a member of the Society of Jesus, lived vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in community; and were formed by the Spiritual Exercises. But even with those important commonalities, no one was alike.