New statue in the Santa Maria del Mar in Barcelona.

On July 31^st, the feast of Saint Ignatius finished the first Jubilee year of the Ignatian Camino. This is the route that Ignatius of Loyola traveled in 1522 from his home in Loyola, Guipúzcoa, up to Manresa, with the goal of reaching the Holy Land. This route of 700 km is offered to all the pilgrims who want to live an experience of personal growth.

Manresa was not the end of his route, as before his travel to the Holy Land, he stayed some time in Barcelona.

In the beautiful gothic church of Santa Maria del Mar there is since more than 150 years an engraved plaque in the chapel next to the northern entrance “Sitting on this stair Saint Ignacius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus used to beg alms in 1524-1525”.

For this Jubilee Year, Fr. Josép Lluis Iriberri, director of the Camino Ignaciano, the rector of the Santa Maria del Mar, Salvador Pié, and Josep Maria Riera, architect and secretary of the “Shared Mission” of the Spanish province, searched to renew the Saint Ignatius chapel and invited the sculptor Estanislau Feliu Maspons to create a statue of the begging Saint Ignatius.

On the feast of our Saint Patron, the renewed chapel has been inaugurated, in the presence of Fr. Provincial Francisco José Ruiz Pérez.

The result of the creative work is surprising. Ignatius is sitting on a simple wooden bench, opening his right hand to beg and keeping in his left hand the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus. The receptivity expressed in his right hand is repeated twice, in his entire body and in the bench, inviting other pilgrims to join him. Broad shoulders and big feet express the former soldier and pilgrim. Another vision on a Saint we thought to know as well, rich to admire and to meditate.