The Society of Jesus (SJ) is a spiritual order of clerk’s standard. Its members are commonly known as Jesuits, a name that was initially derisory. The order grew out of the action of its founder. St. Ignatius of Loyola, and six companions who at Montmartre in Paris, Aug. 15, 1534, bound themselves by vows to poverty, chastity, and apostolic lab ours in the Holy Land or, if this latter plan did not prove feasible, as it did not, to any apostolic endeavour enjoined by the pope. Canonical organization of the order came, Sept. 27, 1540, when Pope Paul III, in Regimini militantis Ecclesiae, accepted the first outline of the order’s makeup (Prima formula institution), approved the framing of detailed constitutions, and limited to 60 the number of members. This last constraint was withdrawn 4 years afterward. The principle of the society is the recovery and excellence of individual Jesuits and of all their fellow men. Jesuit association, behavior of life, and ministries are all directed to fulfill this twofold aim. Official directives in these matters are restricted in a body of writings known jointly as the Institute (Institutum). They embrace chiefly pertinent papal documents; the Jesuits constitutions and religious Exercises, both composed by Ignatius; the policy and statues of general congregations; commands of superiors general; the Epitome instituti; and the Ratio Studio rum, or plan of studies. There are no secret convention. The so-called Monita secreta is a 17th – century forgery.
Refer: Jesuit Madurai Province
