Where would you go?
I would like to walk from Loyola to Montserrat. Loyola is in the Basque country – it’s the birthplace of St Ignatius. It’s a route Ignatius himself did. He was a soldier, and after the battle of Pamplona he was laid up with injuries from a cannonball. He read all sorts of romance stories, but his sister-in-law kept giving him stories of the saints and those stories changed his life. At Montserrat, he laid his sword at the statue of the Black Madonna. He went from there to study at the Sorbonne. I was educated by the Jesuits at Heythrop College, so I feel an affinity with Ignatius. Also, the Jesuit scholars that I studied with all did that pilgrimage when they were novices. I’d start in Loyola on the feast of the Assumption, which is wonderfully celebrated in the Basque country. It would be hot, so we’d wear hats and drink water.
