ABSTRACT
The church of S. Ignazio’s prominent role in the ceremonial and liturgical life of the students at Society’s pre-eminent educational establishment made it even more central to daily routine of the many future Jesuit missionaries who studied or taught there than the Society’s mother church of il Gesu located fewer than 500 metres away. This chapter argues the Jesuits were the religious order which, par excellence, fashioned their image in ways that they became almost synonymous with global Roman Catholic missionary endeavour. The significant role of indigenous children in proselytisation of Roman Catholicism is also a prominent feature of St Francis Xavier’s first letters from India describing his mission on Malabar coast, which were widely translated and circulated on their arrival in Europe. The natural religiosity of the indigenous Americans was also displayed in presence of temples manned by priests who were supported by dedicated revenues, though such rituals were also mixed with those of unspeakable cruelty involving human sacrifice.
