Inauguration: October 1694

Exceptionally, the sermon of the inauguration day, October 13, 1694, has been preserved. We have few editions of sermons pronounced with similar motives. Together with that of the inauguration of the altarpiece of San Nicolás de Pamplona (1715) or that of the consecration of the chapel of the Christ of the guide of the monastery of Fitero (1736), that of St. Ignatius is a rare piece.

In this regard, we must remember that sacred oratory played in past centuries a high role from the cultural and religious point of view. The sermons were very frequent acts and the preachers prepared ad hoc panegyrics, according to the audience, with the corresponding ornatus full of the prevailing rhetoric, always with the triple purpose of teaching, delighting and moving behaviors. The preacher was required to pray and study, as well as to excite fervor, displaying science, eloquence and wit.

Jacinto Aranaz (1650-1724), a real preacher, wise and polished, was in charge of preaching. He used the following proposition: "God brought Ignatius down to raise up the Society, because by razing walls, his grace tends to cast the cord to erect the highest buildings". The prior of the cathedral presided the mass and the viceroy Baltasar de Zúñiga y Guzmán and several authorities attended. During the ceremony, artillery salvos and rifle fire were fired from the citadel.

The preacher alluded positively, as was to be expected, to Father Alesón, with these words:

In the Company, a noted subject, despite the curtains with which his modesty and humility hide. He carved this basilica, that if it were not military its form, could be suspected dressing room transferred from the Sion of Peace, formed a statue of Ignatius, alive even in the wounded and dead only in my voice, because it speaks arrows to the hearts by the ear of the eyes.