Jesuits

Jesuits-
Jesuits are members of the Society of Jesus, and are also known as “Soldiers of Christ” partly because the founder, Saint Ignatius of Loyola was a knight before founding the Jesuits. Current there are 20,170 Jesuits, 14,147 of whom are Priests. They are the largest male religious order within the Catholic Church. The Jesuits are active in 112 Nations and are on six continents. They are best known because of there education at schools, colleges, universities, seminaries and theological facilities. The Jesuits are also very active in social justice and human rights work around the globe. The GHQ of the Society of Jesus is in Rome.
In 1534, Saint Ignatius and a group of students bound themselves to a life of poverty and chastity to enter “enter upon hospital and missionary work in Jerusalem, or to go without questioning wherever the pope might direct." They named themselves the company of Jesus because they felt that they were with him. This lead to the formation of the Society of Jesus in 1590, no where in the Constitutions does it say anything about being an army for Jesus, a common misconception due to Saint Ignatius’s military background. In 1537, Pope Paul III gave them the commendation which permitted them to ordain priests. The Jesuits quickly spread around the known world to Asia.
In the 1700s there was a suppression of the Jesuits due to political maneuvers rather than religious ideology. Due to economic and political conflicts, in 1773, the Jesuits were expelled from the Roman Catholic Church. In the Western European nations the order was enforced, but in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Russia, the order was ignored. In 1814 the Jesuits were restored back into the church and experienced rapid growth.
Today the Jesuits run over 100 educational institutions, in the US the association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities runs 28 Colleges.

Boston College
Canisius College
College of the Holy Cross
Creighton University
Fairfield University
Fordham University
Georgetown University
Gonzaga University
Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley (associate member)
John Carroll University
Le Moyne College
Loyola College in Maryland
Loyola Marymount University
Loyola University Chicago
Loyola University New Orleans
Marquette University
Regis University
Rockhurst University
Saint Joseph's University
Saint Louis University
Saint Peter's College
Santa Clara University
Seattle University
Spring Hill College
University of Detroit Mercy
University of San Francisco
University of Scranton
Weston Jesuit School of Theology (associate member)
Wheeling Jesuit University
Xavier University