St. Ignatius of Loyola and Kierkeegard

Yesterday in History class the professor was giving us a lecture on St. Ignatius of Loyola and his later achievements. What seemed pretty interesting to me is that St. Ignatius lived a pretty vain life up until he was around 25 years old. He very clearly lived in the aesthetic stage of life, as defined by Kierkeegard. He liked women, he worried and was proud about his looks, and behaved aggressively from time to time. It wasn't until he became pretty injured during a war battle, that his conversion into spirituality started to take place. After being in bed for several weeks, spent only in reading books regarding Christ and the lives of saints, he decided to change his current way of life. He then traveled to Spain, however, it's important to note that up until this point he still didn't have religious understanding or appropiate devotion. While he was staying in a cave, he experienced a vision that changed his life, and after which he seemed a very different man. Kierkeegard would say that he had advanced to the religious stage. He had taken then a leap of faith, trusting inconditionally in God and, after that, dedicating his whole life to His cause.