With Eyes and Ears Open: The Role of Visitors in the Society of Jesus: (21 Jesuit Studies)

In With Eyes and Ears Open: The Role of Visitors in the Society of Jesus, twelve historians examine important visitations in the history of the Society. After a thorough investigation of the nature and role of the “visitor” in Jesuit rules and regulations, ten visitations of missions and provinces—from Peru in the sixteenth century, to Ireland in the seventeenth, to the Zambesi mission and Australia in the twentieth—are considered. Visitors, appointed by the superior general in Rome, surveyed the situation for fidelity to the Jesuit way of life, resolved any problems, and recommended future paths, often to the disapproval of Jesuit hosts. One contribution concerns the canonical visitation of the non-Jesuit Francis Saldanha da Gama in 1758, which resulted in the expulsion of the Jesuits from Portugal in 1759.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments List of Figures List of Abbreviations  Introduction  Thomas M. McCoog, S.J. 1 The Role and Significance of Father Visitor in the Society of Jesus  Robert Danieluk, S.J., 2 The Visitor and the Viceroy: Juan de la Plaza and the First Visitation to Jesuit Peru, 1575–79  Andrés I. Prieto 3 Between King and Superior General: Visitor Lorenzo Maggio and the Rehabilitation of the Society of Jesus in France, 1599–1603  Eric Nelson 4 Seventeenth-century Visitations of the Transmarine Houses of the English Province  Thomas M. McCoog, S.J. 5 The Visitation of Mercure Verdier to Ireland, 1648–1649  Tadhg Ó hAnnracháin 6 A Scandal in Moravia: Jesuit Visitor Nicolò Avancini and the 1674 Case of the Jesuits Jan Tanner and Vilém Frölich  Paul Shore 7 Francisco Saldanha da Gama: The Last Visitor of the Portuguese Assistancy  Francisco Malta Romeiras 8Peter Kenney: Twice Visitor of the Maryland Mission (1819–21, 1830–33) and Father of the First Two American Provinces  Robert Emmett Curran 9 Mission Context and the Jesuit Visitor: Charles Bert and the Visitation of Polish Jesuits in the Zambesi Mission, 1924  Festo Mkenda, S.J. 10 The Visitation of Alois Ersin, S.J., to the Province of Lower Germany in 1931  Klaus Schatz, S.J. 11 The 1961 Visitation of the Australian Province by John J. McMahon, S.J.  David Strong, S.J. 12 Gordon George and the Visitation of the English Province, 1964–65  Oliver P. Rafferty, S.J.  Index

About the Author :
Thomas M. McCoog, S.J., PhD (1984), is curator of the Avery, Cardinal Dulles Archives (Fordham University) and archivist of the Maryland province of the Society of Jesus. His most recent monograph is The Society of Jesus in Ireland, Scotland, and England 1598–1606: “Lest our lamp be entirely extinguished” (Brill, 2017).

Review :
“This is a readable collection that convinces of the importance of the role of the Visitor, with much to interest scholars of religious history and particularly its globalisation.” James E. Kelly, Durham University. In: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 71, No. 3 (2020), pp. 650–651.