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Holy Cross “pilgrims” bring
spirit of Loyola back to campus
By Michelle M. Murphy
 Although
the notion of “pilgrimage” is at the heart of
Jesuit education, the realities of modern life make it difficult
for the concept to be more than just an idea for most lay
faculty at Jesuit schools.
But thanks to a $100,000 grant from the Thomas and Dorothy
Leavey Foundation, two dozen professors from a handful of
Jesuit colleges–including six professors from Holy
Cross–actually made a pilgrimage themselves last June,
walking in the very steps St. Ignatius took 500 years ago.
The trip, a 10-day tour of sites in Spain and Rome that
were important in the lives of Ignatius and the first Jesuits,
was coordinated by the College’s Thomas Landy, the
associate director of the Center for Religion, Ethics and
Culture; director of the Lilly Vocation Discernment Initiative,
and a lecturer in the sociology department. Landy says that
he has wanted to offer this trip for quite a while.
“I knew of other pilgrimages–including an Augustianian
pilgrimage offered by Merrimack College–but never one
like this,” he explains—and adds that it seems
crucial “to help a new generation of faculty learn
about the legacy of Ignatius and to consider the way that
this legacy might influence their teaching and mentoring
of students.
“There are 50 or more young faculty at Holy Cross,
and we wanted to introduce them to some aspects of Jesuit
spirituality, to socialize them into the mission of the College,” continues
Landy, who was himself a Jesuit for about 10 years. “That
has to happen intentionally–we can’t assume the
faculty are aware of Jesuit history and identity. When we
bring lay faculty on, there is often no equivalent ‘formation’ as
there is for Jesuits. A pilgrimage is one of the best and
most intensive ways to achieve that formation, that exposure
to Jesuit spirituality.”
Leavey Foundation trustee Louis Castruccio (father of Holy
Cross alums Mary E. Castruccio ’00 and Genny Castruccio
Salamon ’92) helped to secure the $100,000 grant for
a one-year pilot project, with the caveats that it would
be for new faculty only (no more than five years post-tenure)
and have national scope. The 24 members of the pilgrimage
included five representatives from Holy Cross (in addition
to Landy): Susan Amatangelo and Daniel Frost (modern languages),
Rosemary Carbine (religious studies), Ellen Perry (classics)
and Leila Philip (English)—as well as professors from
Fordham, Marquette, Santa Clara Universities and Loyola College
in Maryland.
Before the trip, the faculty had to do some background reading—the Autobiography
of Saint Ignatius Loyola, excerpts from The Spiritual
Exercises and The First Jesuits, by John
O’Malley—and then meet for two days in May
for follow-up discussion.
“This was one of the best experiences I’ve
had in years,” says Landy, who led the seminar. “I
had all these people who work with texts in so many different
ways and they all came at this reading in different ways,
which was fascinating. I saw so many new things in it. It
was a great discussion. They were really interested in learning
about Ignatius, the person.”
The seminar was critical, he adds, for giving the participants–many
of whom are not Catholic–the historical context for
Ignatius’ work and a better understanding of how he
was shaped in (and by) the places they would visit on their
trip: Loyola Castle (site of his birth and conversion); Manresa
(the cave where he made his retreat and began developing
the insights that would become the Spiritual Exercises);
Montserrat and Barcelona, in the Basque region of Spain;
and St. Paul Outside the Walls and St. Mary Major’s
(where Ignatius said his first Mass), in Rome.
But for all they learned ahead of time, the “pilgrims” agree
that it was nothing compared with what happened once they
began their trip.
“I think there were profound moments in these places,” observes
Landy. “Even for faculty who are not particularly religious,
it meant a great deal to have the experience of following
in some of Ignatius’ steps, of standing, for instance,
in the cave where he had spent a year.”
“I think the temptation is to idealize, to make Ignatius
abstract. You forget that this was a real person, at a historical
point in time,” says assistant professor of English
and creative writing, Philip, who is in her second year at
Holy Cross. “Being there, on-site, seeing actual physical
tokens of his life, was very rich and evocative.
“One of the most amazing moments was going to his
house in Rome,” continues Philip, an Asianist who grew
up “loosely Episcopal,” studied Buddhism in college,
and applied to the pilgrimage in order to learn more about
Catholicism—so that she would have a better understanding
of her students.
“(Comparing) the splendor of the art we had been seeing
around Rome with the humble way that Ignatius had lived was
very dramatic,” Philip notes. “Seeing his clothes,
his shoes, really made the fact of this man vivid, no longer
an abstraction.
“Ignatius and I were about the same height–5
feet, 2 inches tall,” she continues, “and when
we found his sword, we measured it—it was so long,
I couldn’t have gotten it out of the sheath! That raised
all kinds of interesting questions: How would he even have
carried such a sword?”
Rev. Paul Crowley, S.J., a religious studies professor from
Santa Clara, celebrated Mass for the group several times
during the trip—which also enhanced the experience,
according to associate professor of classics, Ellen Perry,
now in her eighth year at Holy Cross.
“Fr. Crowley did a wonderful job of considering in
his homilies the significance of certain locations–Ignatius’ apartments
in Rome—or where his illness and near-death experiences
first led him to redirect his life,” Perry says—and
adds that although she herself attends Quaker meetings, she
felt that the “spirit of these Masses was exceedingly
warm and welcoming.”
Reflecting on the overall experience, the participants
indicate that the most significant part of the trip was the
traveling itself. It was a pilgrimage in the truest sense
of the word, they say, a journey through which—in restaurants
and on the streets of Italy and Spain—they slowly discovered
more about themselves and, also, about their colleagues back
in Worcester.
“We’d end up with these long Italian or Spanish
lunches,” recalls Landy, “when we really enjoyed
getting to know each other.”
“We lived like Spaniards–we ate late, stayed
up late, walked and walked and talked after dinner,” says
Philip. “It was great to get to know other Holy Cross
colleagues—and very unique to have an opportunity to
spend that much time out of your life doing so. We really
felt the sense of community that was so present in the Spanish
places we were visiting—and that took us back to Ignatius’ autobiography,
in which he talked so much about his compañeros (companions)
and how they were really setting out to form something, to
build something.”
The thoughtful mood infused every element of the trip,
including the bus rides, says Landy—much to the chagrin
of the bus operator.
“Our Spanish bus driver kept wanting to play loud
pop music, and we all wanted to be in a contemplative space,
with no noise surrounding us,” he recalls with a chuckle. “We
built in enough free time for people to be able to take an
hour to pray or meditate with one of the spiritual exercises
of Ignatius, and then we’d talk about it together.”
“I liked that I was allowed to wander off and just
take photos—see things the way I wanted to see them,
and not be ferried along like on a tour,” says Frost,
an assistant professor of Spanish who specializes in 19 th-century
Spanish literature. A member of the Holy Cross faculty since
2002, he is now in his first year on the tenure track.
“I’m an agnostic, and I didn’t have firsthand
experience of pilgrimaging, so I was leery of going,” Frost
explains. “But since I teach at a Catholic, Jesuit
school, I thought it important that I learn more about it
so I would have a better understanding of my students.
“What I took away were the bus rides to and fro,” he
continues. “If the pilgrimage ethos was really there,
the going was the journey. Talking on the bus, talking on
the beach, talking over dinner–all of that was more
important than just seeing the sites.”
In the months since their return, the Holy Cross faculty
members have been processing all that they absorbed on the
pilgrimage–and thinking about ways to incorporate the
experience into their instruction. Several are considering
the possibility of an interdisciplinary study with the concept
of pilgrimage at its core; others are envisioning specific
and immediate applications of their newfound knowledge.
“I was interested in going on the pilgrimage for
a number of reasons related to my field—but especially
because I had just gotten tenure and felt the need to learn
more about the Jesuit tradition,” says associate professor
of Italian, Susan Amatangelo, now in her seventh year at
Holy Cross. “Moreover, since I’ve been very involved
in our curriculum review debates, I wanted to know more about
Jesuit ideas about education and how they applied or (could
apply) to Holy Cross.
“In my 19 th-century novel course, we talk about
religious conversion,” she continues. “Now, I
can talk to the class about St. Ignatius’ conversion
and compare it to those we find in a certain novel.
“In my modern literature survey course,” Amatangelo
explains, “I give a cultural and intellectual history
of Italy through the centuries, and the Jesuits come into
play. Again, now I’m in a position to speak more authoritatively
about the role they played in Italian culture.”
“It has already affected the ease with which I’m
able to engage students in questions about faith,” notes
Philip. “Many are already thinking about that, and
it comes out in their writing. Now I have more confidence
talking about religion with them, because I know more about
their background—and it has helped me reach some students
whom I might not have reached as quickly before.”
Perhaps the greatest impact has been on the faculty members
themselves—in terms of their sense of community and
their appreciation for the unique atmosphere that defines
the College. “I think it changes the dynamics in terms
of their belonging—of becoming part of Holy Cross,” observes
Landy. “If the Jesuits are ‘other’ to them,
it’s a radically different thing than if this identity
somehow becomes part of their own experience.”
Although the Leavey grant was for only one year, Landy is
optimistic that the success of this pilgrimage will somehow
spawn others. “There is a rich history of Jesuits in
Asia, Latin America, Central America—and there are
lots of ways we could develop pilgrimages that would tie
faculty into Jesuit missions around the world,” he
observes. “We hope to find money to make more such
trips possible in the future.”
Michelle Murphy is a freelance writer from West Hartford,
Conn.
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