Patients should be welcomed and accepted as children of God, inspired in St. Francis of Assisi when he said, “The Lord will provide them in this life food for the body and virtues for the soul, and in the future, he will grant them their celestial heritage. (Second Rule of Celano, 6, 2.6).
St. Ignatius’s biographer Ricardo García Villoslada S.J. cites Ignatius’ contemporaries: “There were two hospitals in Azpeitia (St. Ignatius’s birthplace): The hospital of St. Mary Magdalene, which was actually a charitable hospice that welcomed the needy, and the hospital of St. Martin, for the sick. Ignatius, who was acquainted with the former from earlier times chose to stay there, to live with the poor, the beggars, and to eat and sleep with them… He used to go out to beg alms from door to door, and what he received he used to give to those needy people at the hospice with whom he humbly used to eat at table. As a man of spirit and holiness, he gave a great example through his humility, poverty, and patience….This servant of God drew light out of illness, becoming more than a medical doctor: he was a theologian, a doctor of the spirit, who knew how to order his own life and the lives of others toward the glory and service of God. “
Another source, Pedro de Calatayud SJ, related that “This great saint had great power over demons. In Rome and in Padua, when Ignatius cast out a demon from a possessed person, the demon howled: “What do you have to do with me, St. Ignatius, for you are the worst enemy I have in the world!”