Tag: Jesuit vow of obedience to the Pope

Sant’ Andrea al Quirinale — Bernini’s favorite church

Dome of Sant’Andrea al Quirinale

A few weeks ago I shared some reflections on taking my final vows as a Jesuit, a tremendously blessed moment for me. Today I thought I might add a few words and pictures about the place where I took those vows: the Church of Sant’Andrea al Quirinale.

Since Rome is packed with stunningly beautiful churches, sometimes those that would be at the top of the visitor’s itinerary anywhere else in the world end up being overlooked. Sant’Andrea al Quirinale is one of those. It should be numbered among the most important Jesuit churches in the world, but in Rome it has to compete with the Gesù–site of the body of St. Ignatius and the arm of St. Francis Xavier–and Sant’Ignazio–the onetime chapel of the Roman College, as the Gregorian University was first known. Both churches are enormous, paradigmatic examples of the baroque at its most overwhelming.

Sant’Andrea is tiny by comparison, but don’t let size mislead you. It was the chapel of the first Jesuit novitiate; in an adjoining room, one can visit the relics of St. Stanislaus Kostka, patron of Jesuit novices and of students, who died there in 1568 at the age of 17.

Sant’Andrea al Quirinale interior

While it stood on the site of an early church dedicated to Andrew the Apostle, the present Sant’Andrea (built in 1658) was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Bernini, who was busy at the time decorating the interior of St. Peter’s Basilica and building the colonnade for St. Peter’s Square, refused to take a commission for Sant’Andrea. It was said to be his favorite work, and, as he aged, the great artist was sometimes seen sitting alone inside the church, enjoying its peaceful atmosphere.

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Final Jesuit Vows

On April 27, the feast of St. Peter Canisius on the Jesuit liturgical calendar, I professed my final vows as a Jesuit. I had taken my first vows 18 years before at the end of my novitiate in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Jesuit vows are unique in several ways.

For Jesuit priests, final vows come after ordination and after we have had an opportunity to do “tertianship,” which is a bit like an abbreviated second novitiate. We take a period of time away to review the fundamentals of what it means to be a Jesuit and to do the 30-day Spiritual Exercises a second time. (I did mine in 2023 in Australia.)

The first Jesuit vows that we take at the end of novitiate are simple but perpetual. In fact, they are really a promise to enter fully into the Society of Jesus (to take final vows) when the Society decides it is ready. Some have described the process as you vowing to enter the Society at first vows, and the Society accepting your offer at final vows. In addition to the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the Jesuit vow formula contains a promise to show “special care for the instruction of children.” (If my students are reading, that’s you!) For many Jesuits, a vow of “special obedience to the sovereign pontiff in regard to the missions” is added. This implies an availability to carry out any mission that might be needed for the good of the Church. Pope Leo could order me to cheer for the White Sox if he wanted.

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