As noted last month when we discussed St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, some saints are particular to specific religious orders’ or congregations’ calendars. Like St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, St. Joseph Pignatelli is honored in Jesuit parishes.

St. Joseph Pignatelli was born in Zaragoza in northeastern Spain in 1737 and entered the Society of Jesus there in 1753 after the death of both of his parents, who were of the nobility. Despite that, his first years as a Jesuit were spent as a humble teacher and chaplain.

A rebellion during a threatening famine against the local governor in 1767 was framed as an excuse to drive the Jesuits out of Spain and while, because of his noble status, Pignatelli could have avoided deportation, he chose to follow his community into exile. Ahead of the journey, local provincials had delegated authority to him, making him the provincial of some 600 Jesuits.

Thirteen ships set out for the western coast of what is today Italy, though they were not well-received, finding temporary respite in Corsica before its acquisition by the French, who likewise expelled the Jesuits. They made their way to Genoa, where they stayed while Pope Clement XIII resisted European royal pressures to suppress the Society. What Clement XIII resisted, Clement XIV granted in 1773, reducing 23,000 men to ex-Jesuits (though still priests).

While most European princes joined in the suppression of the Jesuits, some — most prominently in Russia — did not. The Jesuits continued to exist in what is today Belarus and, from there, would slowly return to some of the patchwork on states that then existed on the Italian peninsula, e.g., Parma, where — after a quarter century — Pignatelli reassociated himself with a Jesuit mission from Belarus and slowly begin the reconstruction of the Society in western Europe. The convulsions of the Napoleonic era resulted in varying fates for the Jesuits in Parma, Naples and Sicily until Pope Pius VII allowed them back into Rome. Pius eventually restored the Jesuits worldwide in 1814, three years after Pignatelli’s death. He was canonized in 1954.

Still, Pignatelli is regarded in Jesuit circles as the second “founder” of the Society after St. Ignatius, precisely for having laid the groundwork that kept the order alive for 30-some years between its suppression and restoration. He renewed his vows in 1797 when it was possible and became both papally approved novice master and provincial for the Jesuits when they reemerged in the Parma region in the late 1700s.

The depiction of St. Joseph Pignatelli comes from an 1893 French book by Alfred Hamy, Galerie illustrée de la Compagnie de Jésus (“An Illustrated Gallery of the Society of Jesus”). Typical of black-and-white engravings from that period, St. Joseph Pignatelli is shown in a Jesuit cassock, cape and cap. His eyes are downcast, fixed on “Christ crucified” on the crucifix he holds in his hands. A book lies on the desk, whose title I cannot see. Is it a prayer book? A breviary? St. Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises? In any event, it is too thin for a Bible. From other paintings, the engraving appears to be a faithful likeness of St. Joseph Pignatelli.

[For more on St. Joseph Pignatelli, see here and here.]