1740 –
EUROPE
• Clement XII dies. Benedict XIV becomes pope.
The pontificate of Benedict XIV will be one of the more important ones of this century.
• Church of St. Anne and a residence dependent on the college are built by the Jesuits in Budapest, Hungary in the purest Baroque style.
1742 –
EUROPE
• Benedict XIV issues Ex quo singulari, rejecting the Chinese rites, telling the Jesuits to obey. He said the Jesuits were “disobedient and contumacious (i.e. rebellious)”.
1744 –
EUROPE
• Benedict XIV issues Omnium sollicitudinum, telling Jesuits in India that they should obey. Missionaries in India are required to take an oath binding them not to tolerate a variety of Hindu practices. In 1623, after investigation by the Inquisition at Goa, Roberto de Nobili’s case was sent to Rome. Gregory XV had pronounced in de Nobili’s favor.
• General Retz assures the pope that the Jesuits had been obeying.
1745 –
EUROPE
• College and observatory founded in Lyon, France and Graz, Austria.
AMERICAS
• The Convent of Saint Ignatius on the Calla Las Damas in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic is built. It would become the National Pantheon in 1958 and be the resting place of many famous Dominicans.
• 68 Jesuits from Spain sail to Paraguay.
1746 –
AMERICAS
• Joseph Lafiteau, French Jesuit famous for his book “Customs of the American Indians” (on language, customs of the Iroquois) dies.
1747 –
EUROPE
• Empress Maria Theresa arranges to transfer her imperial summer residence, the Favorita, to the Society of Jesus for the establishment of an elite school for the education of the children of nobles — the Theresianum Academy (Vienna).
ASIA
• Death of Fr. Joseph Beschi, one of the founders of the Madurai Mission.
He wrote some 30 works in the Tamil language.
AMERICAS
• The missions of Taruma (Bolivia) in Sao Joaquin and San Estanislao are founded.
• The Spanish Crown gives the Jesuits control of the old Colegio Santiago de la Paz (or Colegio de Gorjon) in Dominican Republic, which was built in 1538 with money bequeathed by the deceased sugar planter Francisco Gorjón. In 1749 this school would become the Universidad Real Y Pontificia de Santiago de la Paz & Gorjon.
1748 –
ASIA
• Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo, founder of RVM (first Filipino religious order of women) dies. She made a retreat under a Jesuit, Pavel Klein (or Pablo Clain), a Czech. During this retreat, she decided to ofer her life to God.
AMERICAS
• Havana (Cuba) cathedral is constructed as a Jesuit church. It will be converted in 1777 into the Parroquial Mayor church, after the Suppression of the Jesuits in Spanish territory in 1767. In 1788, it formally would become a Cathedral.
• Eighth Jesuit Bolivian reducción in Chiquitania, San Ignacio de Loyola de Velasco (present-day San Ignacio de Velasco), founded
1749 –
EUROPE
• Italy divided into 5 provinces (Rome, Naples, Sicily, Venice, Milan)
All in all 3622 Jesuits in Italy about one-half of whom were priests, with 178 houses
• Spain divided into 5 provinces (Toledo, Castile, Aragon, Seville, Sardinia)
Total of 2943 Jesuits (with 1342 priests) in 158 houses
• France divided into 5 provinces (France, Acquitane, Lyons, Toulouse, Champagne)
Total 3350 (1763 priests) in 158 houses.
• German divided into 5 provinces (Germania Superior, Lower Rhine, Upper Rhine, Austria Bohemia). Total 5340 (2558 priests) in 307 houses.
• 3,276 Jesuits as missionaries (one-seventh of the entire Society)
All over the world – 22, 589 Jesuits
• Emmanuel Padial’s cause is introduced in Rome.
ASIA
• History of the Jesuits in the Philippines by Pedro Murillo Velarde is printed in the printing press of the College of Manila.
AMERICAS
• 303 Jesuits in Province of Paraguay.
• University of Francis Xavier in Panama, a Royal Pontifical University, is started (made possible through the generosity of Canon Francisco Javier Luna de Victoria y Castro, later Bishop of Panama and Archbishop of Trujillo, Peru) and is known today as the University of Panama.
• Colegio de Gorjon (est. 1538) becomes the Universidad Real Y Pontificia de Santiago de la Paz & Gorjon (Dominican Republic). The college was entrusted to the Jesuits in 1747.
