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A Jesuit is a member of the Society of Jesus (Societa Jesu, SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order. It is a male order of priests, in which Jesuits are addressed as ‘Father’. St Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556) founded the order in 1540 with the aim of spreading the faith, providing education and carrying out missionary work. This was done under the order’s motto, Ad majorem Dei Gloriam (AMDG), ‘all for the greater glory of God’.

Although they take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience (particularly to the Pope), Jesuits do not live in seclusion like monks, but rather in the world. There, they pursue a wide range of professions; for example, Jesuits work as teachers, scientists and doctors, but also as parish priests, spiritual directors or journalists. With Education as one of their apostolates or ‘missions’ (alongside Ignatian Spirituality, Social Justice and Dialogue, and Deepening of Faith), the high quality and academic approach of Jesuit colleges and universities are unrivalled. Today, the Society of Jesus numbers some 14,500 Jesuits, spread across 127 countries.

RG.PC Ignatius van Loyola 13.1.1

In 1925, four Jesuits joined forces and founded the Ruusbroec Society, a research centre dedicated to ‘The Scientific History of Dutch Piety’. Its main remit has scarcely changed in a hundred years: to study spiritual heritage in a thorough, scientific manner and to stimulate interest in it.

• Desideer Stracke S.J. († 1970) was one of the leading figures of the early Flemish movement and saw the founding of the Ruusbroec Society as a necessary catch-up exercise. In his view, the study of religious life, particularly in the Middle Ages, had been neglected for too long. He emphasised that mystical authors were of great value not only spiritually but also literarily. Although he warned against excessive ‘hyperphilology’, he made a significant contribution to the scholarly study of Middle Dutch mysticism and the spiritual heritage in the vernacular.
  
• Jozef Van Mierlo S.J. († 1958) was a Germanist by training and gained renown for his comprehensive overviews of Old and Middle Dutch literature and the literary history of the Low Countries. Together with Stracke, he was committed to the reappraisal of Middle Dutch mystical literature within a broader literary and historical context.
• Leonce Reypens S.J. (d. 1972) was the driving force behind the artists’ movement De Pelgrim, which viewed contemporary art as a path to the divine. In 1913, together with Stracke and Van Mierlo, he undertook a study tour of more than a hundred libraries in Austria and Hungary. There, they collected numerous manuscripts and early printed works from the Low Countries, which laid the foundations for the development of a significant collection of spiritual heritage. He focused on mystical female authors such as Beatrijs, Hadewijch and Lutgardis. He also maintained contact with the writer René Lauwers, who adopted the pseudonym ‘Reninca’.
• Jean Baptist Poukens S.J. († 1962) was a classical philologist and began his career with the Bollandists, who specialise in the study of the lives of the saints. His outspoken support for Flemish interests led to tensions within his order, after which he ended up in Antwerp. Within the Ruusbroec Society, he found kindred spirits who shared his passion for Dutch mystical authors such as Jan van Ruusbroec, Geert Grote, Johannes Tauler and Hadewijch of Brabant.