Claude Jay: Companion, theologian, apostle

Abstract

Born very probably in 1504, last year marked the V Centenary of the birth of Claude Jay, one of the first Companions of Ignatius of Loyola in Paris, member of the first group of ten students at Sorbona University, later known as Primi Patres or the Maestros de París, who would become later the future «Society of Jesus». The figure of this great saboian Jesuit has remained unfairly hidden, maybe overshadowed by the brightness of some other contemporary group members who, because of their responsibilities inside the Order (Ignatius or D. Laínez), because of their huge missionary activities (Francis Xavier) or because of their holy lives, shined with a bigger influence all along posterity. Trying to follow as much as possible the sources at hand, this article presents the human, religious-jesuit and theological dimensions of this faithful Companion, lucid Theologian of German Bishops and untiring Apostle in the middle of the unstable Europe of the XVI century.