Ignazio Visconti (31 July 1682 - 4 May 1755) was an Italian

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

, elected sixteenth Superior General of the Society of Jesus which he governed from 4 July 1751 to 4 May 1755.

Formation and early career

Visconti was born in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, Italy. A student of the Parma Jesuit school, he joined the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

in 1702, in spite of his family opposition. After the usual spiritual formation and Philo-Theological training, Visconti was a teacher of Letters for twenty years. In addition, he was professor of

Philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. In his spiritual ministry he was giving special attention to the strengthening of the Marian Congregations (nowadays known as the '' Christian life community''). For three years (1732–35) he was provincial of Milan. In 1737 he was called to Rome as Assistant of Franz Retz for the Italian affairs of the Society.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Visconti, Ignazio 1682 births 1755 deaths 18th-century Italian Jesuits Superiors General of the Society of Jesus