Madonna Della Strada
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Madonnadellastrada_churchofthegesu.jpg
Madonnadellastrada.jpg
Madonna Della Strada or Santa Maria Della Strada — Italian meaning Our Lady of the Way (The Way was what the earliest Christians called its community in antiquity) — is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is the patroness of the Society of Jesus religious order of the Roman Catholic Church.
The founder of the Society of Jesus, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, claimed to have been protected by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary during battle in his service as a Basque soldier. It was that intercession that inspired Saint Ignatius of Loyola to establish the religious order that would become known as the Jesuits, in order to defend the Roman Catholic Church, launching a Catholic Reformation in response to the Protestant Reformation sparked by the former Roman Catholic priest Martin Luther.
A famous painting of Madonna Della Strada from the 15th century is enshrined at the Church of the Gesu in Rome, motherchurch of the Society of Jesus.
Madonna Della Strada Chapel
Madonna Della Strada is the namesake of the chapel motherchurch of the Jesuit Province of Chicago (one of the largest Jesuit provinces) and sits on the campus of Loyola University Chicago in the community of Rogers Park. It was built on the lakefront with the waters of Lake Michigan directly at its front doorstep. Historical restoration and renovation was initiated in the spring and completed in the fall of 2004.
Several chapel churches in Latin America were named after the chapel church in Chicago, as a tribute to Loyola University Chicago Jesuit and student missionaries.