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EXPLAINING A FEW NAMES Manresa Retreat House itself and a number of sites at Manresa are named for important places in the life of St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits. The Montserrat Chapel
In a small prayer chapel here, we have a full size image of Our Lady of Montserrat. Before it lies a sword, symbolic of the life Ignatius gave up. For many of our retreatants it has also become a symbol of some element of their own lives that they need to leave behind. Manresa Retreat House It was the intention of Ignatius after leaving Montserrat to go to the Holy Land “to help souls.” But the port of Barcelona from which he would have had to sail was plague ridden, and he was not permitted to enter the city. He stayed instead for the next ten months at the small town of Manresa, about ten miles from Montserrat. It was probably called Minorisa under the Romans. He was led to keep a record of his spiritual experiences there for the sake of helping others, and these notes grew into what is known today as The Spiritual Exercises, the basis of the Catholic retreat movement and of all kinds of retreats given here and at retreat houses around the world. For that reason we and many of those houses are named for this small city that has since grown to a population of some 40,000. The Cave Chapel
The Cardoner Chapel Ignatius's cave sat beside the Cardoner River that runs through the town of Manresa. On the banks of this river Ignatius had some of his most profound mystical experiences. On our grounds here a small prayer chapel stands beside the main branch of the young Rouge River. Its waterwheel dips into the stream where a small waterfall provides a constant background murmur. We call it the Cardoner Chapel after the river of Ignatius's experience. La Storta
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At
the time of Ignatius, when a man was about to dedicate himself
to knightly service, it was the custom for him to confess his
sins and to spend a night in a Vigil of Arms, staying awake in
chapel standing and kneeling all night long. Once Ignatius had
decided to set aside the past and dedicate himself entirely to
God, he went from Loyola Castle across the north of Spain to the
Monastery of Montserrat about 40 miles west of Barcelona, there
to confess and keep vigil before the ancient image of Our Lady
of Montserrat.
Just
outside Manresa there was a small cave, a place of solitude, to
which Ignatius resorted throughout these months, praying, and
fasting and experiencing God in a personal and transforming way.
The cave is now decorated with bronze, stained glass and marble,
and the Jesuit retreat house there is built adjacent to and over
the site. A number of pilgrimages led by our staff have had the
privilege of celebrating mass in the tiny cave. On the second
floor of our main house, there is a 
In
1537, on his way to Rome, just a few miles outside the city itself,
Ignatius stopped to pray at a small deserted chapel at a place
called La Storta. In a vision there that was a watershed in his
life he saw God the Father placing him with Christ, and he heard
Christ telling him that he would be favorable to Ignatius and
his companions in the Holy City. A former gatekeeper's house at
the back entrance to our property, which contains the offices
of the