(slideshow) Take a peek at the childhood homes of 8 well-known French saints

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St. Ignatius of Loyola, in Loyola (Spain)

It was in Loyola, in Basque country in northern Spain, where the founder of the Company of Jesus was born in 1491. The home where he was born is an ancient medieval fortress with thick stone walls and special openings for firing arrows and cannons. The upper part of the walls has been modified with the addition of red brick, making it look more like a palace. At the end of the 17th century, the Jesuits built a shrine all around the castle—a vast structure in the Baroque style—which became an important pilgrimage destination. The building’s third floor houses St. Ignatius’ bedroom, the same in which he experienced a profound conversion between June of 1521 and February of 1522 while convalescing from a serious wound in his right leg where he had been struck by a cannon ball.

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