La milizia come “maniera de ser” dei gesuiti: missione, martirio, obbedienza

Obedience was one of the essential characters of the Jesuit way of being and it determined also the ideals of sacrifice and martyrdom. During the xvi century, we can distinguish two moments. Ignatius of Loyola, reader of Erasmus, saw in Christ’s sacrifice also a reflection of his human nature. Bellarmine affirmed that between God’s sacrifice and human martyrdom it was a gap: Christ’s death was the accomplishment of the prophecy of the Old Testament of the death of God; in human and missionary martyrdom the Jesuits saw the testimony of the «imitatio Christi». But in order to be an action of religion the death of Jesuit had to be inspired by the will of obedience to the hierarchy of the Company, which directed the “militia”.