Spirituality: Pilgrimage to Jerusalem

While he recovered from the wounds he suffered at Pamplona and underwent his conversion, Ignatius vowed that he would make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. True to his word, when his legs had healed sufficiently, he began his long journey. Having renounced his old ways, Ignatius took up the life of a beggar, trusting completely that God would see to his needs. After a long and dangerous trip, he reached Rome:

There all who spoke to him, on discovering that he didn't carry any money for Jerusalem, began to dissuade him from making that trip, giving him many reasons why it was impossible to find passage without money. But he had great assurance in his soul (which he couldn't doubt) that he would find a way to go to Jerusalem. After receiving the blessing of Pope Adrian VI, he then set out for Venice eight or nine days after Easter. He had six or seven ducats which they had given him for the passage from Venice to Jerusalem; he had accepted them, being somewhat overcome by the fears that they had aroused that he would not be able to go in any other way. But two days after leaving Rome he began to realize that this was a lack of trust on his part, and it bothered him a good deal that he had accept the ducats, so he decided it would be good to get rid of them. He finally decided to give them freely to those whom he encountered, who usually were poor. He did so, and when he arrived at Venice, he had no more than a few quatrini, which he needed that night.

(Olin and O'Callaghan, Autobiography, pp. 46-47)