Throughout the 2020-21 academic year, Fairfield University is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first female undergraduate students in 1970, and celebrating all the women who have made their mark on our community over the past half-century. In keeping with this celebratory theme, the Murphy Center for Ignatian Spirituality and Campus Ministry are presenting The Inigas Series of webinar events.

Named after the group of women that spiritually and financially supported St. Ignatius of Loyola in Manresa, Spain during the 16th century, this group committed their lives to living out the charism of Ignatian spirituality – a tradition sustained today by the women students, faculty, staff, and alumni at Fairfield who are living out their vocations as Inigas in all walks of life.

The first Inigas Series event will take place on Octobe 26 at 7 p.m., featuring Reverend Anne (Simmington) Gardner ’82, whose lecture is entitled, “A Journey of Faith.” Having worked the majority of her career at two premier educational institutions in Massachusetts — Harvard University and Phillips Academy, Andover — Reverend Gardner now leads the chaplaincy program at Harvard-Westlake, a private secondary school in Los Angeles.
 
Reverend Gardner is both an Episcopal priest and a freelance writer. Her forthcoming debut book, And So I Walked, recounts her journey of traversing the 500-mile Camino de Santiago de Compostela, an experience that explores how faith, family, and friendship both change us and sustain us.

Upcoming events in The Inigas Series include “Waiting with Grace: An Advent Retreat for Women,” on Tuesday, December 1 from 6:30 – 8 p.m., as well as two spring 2021 events: “Growing in Friendship: A Lenten Retreat for Women” and “An Ignatian view on Women in Business: A Conversation with an Alumna.”

For more information on the Murphy Center's upcoming series, visit fairfield.edu/mcis.