This page used to be titled “Warrior of Faith Unleashing the Power of Saint Ignatius,” which is not the name of any book. The actual title is The Life and Prayers of Saint Ignatius of Loyola by Wyatt North, first published in 2013.
What it is
A short combined biography and prayer collection, roughly 65 pages. The first part tells the story of Ignatius of Loyola: a Spanish soldier and courtier, seriously wounded by a cannonball at Pamplona in 1521, who read the only books available during a long convalescence and came out of it a different man. The second part collects prayers associated with him.
Ignatius went on to found the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, and to write the Spiritual Exercises, which is the work he is actually known for. This book is an introduction to the man, not to the Exercises.
A note on tradition
Ignatius is a Catholic saint and the founder of a Catholic religious order, and this book is written from inside that tradition. It refers to him as Saint Ignatius throughout and includes prayers in a Catholic devotional idiom.
We are stating that plainly rather than burying it, because a reader should know what he is picking up. Nothing in the book contradicts what CalledToBetter holds about the gospel or the authority of Scripture. The story of a self-absorbed soldier whose life was upended by God is worth any Christian’s time, and the prayers are prayers. Readers from a Protestant background will simply find some of the framing unfamiliar, and that is fine. Take what is useful.
Know what you are buying
Wyatt North Publishing produces a large catalogue of short saint biographies in this same format. The Life and Prayers of Saint Paul, and many others, are built the same way. That is not a criticism, but it does set expectations: this is a brief, accessible, inexpensive introduction rather than a serious biography.
There is very little independent review coverage of it. If you want a substantial life of Ignatius, this is not it, and you would be better served by a full-length biography or by going directly to the Spiritual Exercises with a good guide. If you want an hour’s read that tells you who the man was, it does that job.
What we cut from this review
The old version of this page framed the book as a resource for building male friendship and accountability, complete with a section on what “our review team” concluded and a tie to Proverbs 27:17. That framing was invented. The book is a biography of a sixteenth-century Spaniard and a set of prayers. It is not about brotherhood, it contains no discussion questions, and it was never designed for a men’s group.
The honest version is simpler. It is a short life of an interesting man who was converted while flat on his back with a shattered leg, and who spent the rest of his life trying to give God everything.
Who it suits
Someone curious about church history beyond his own tradition, or drawn to the specific idea that a violent, ambitious, vain man can be stopped in his tracks and redirected. That story is genuinely bracing, and it survives the thinness of the telling here.
Skip it if you want depth, a study format, or a book about Christian friendship. It is none of those things.
The Life and Prayers of Saint Ignatius of Loyola on Amazon