The Order was founded in 1540 as the dream of seven students at Paris University who a few years earlier had decided to travel to the Holy Land. If they failed to reach their final destination,
\nthey would place themselves at the Pope\u2019s service. The Society of Jesus grew rapidly. At the time of the death of its founder, Ignatius, it already had almost a thousand members. A century later they had reached 13,000.<\/p>\n
The Jesuits have had to face many hardships over time: the Society was outlawed for several years and subsequently reinstated, the persecution of several of its members\u2026 Yet thanks to the leadership of the Superior
\nGeneral Father Pedro Arrupe and the Jesuit belief that faith should go hand-in-hand with the pursuit of justice, the Jesuits have managed to carry out their intense Apostolic work involving the education of young people,
\nworking in all fields of learning, tackling injustice, and defending human rights.
\nThere are now 17,000 Jesuits throughout the world, of whom almost a thousand are in Spain. Thanks to them, more than 3,000,000 pupils and students are developing and learning at a Jesuit school.<\/p>\n