The Ignatius Jesuit Centre is located 1km north of the City of Guelph and is part of the geographic region known as the “Greater Golden Horseshoe” — a densely populated and industrialized area centered around the west end of Lake Ontario. With a population of 8.1 million people, the Greater Golden Horseshoe makes up over a quarter of the population of Canada and contains approximately 75% of Ontario's population, making it one of the most intensely populated areas in North America.

The region is projected to grow to over 11.5 million people by the year 2030. As a green space situated at the edge of a growing city, the land that makes up the Centre remains vulnerable to urbanization. The Friends of Ignatius Foundation has been established to help protect and preserve our sacred lands, and to provide opportunities for people to experience the sacredness of this land. FOI is the long-envisioned response by the Guelph Jesuits to ensure the land of the Centre is protected and cared for in the years to come.

Whom you can expect to meet as you walk this land...

• Retreatants from Loyola House, who find that their communion with nature and the farm becomes an intrinsic and essential part of their prayer, sometimes in silence
• Women and men coming and going from the Business Centre at Orchard Park
• Groups of people who are here to be educated through their experience of the farm and our network of trails
• Members of Ignatius Farm CSA, when they come to pick up their share of organic food grown on this land
• Friends from Guelph who have rented small garden plots
• Volunteers who come to help with the chores of the farm and in the gardens
• People who are finding quiet time in one of the Hermitages on the land
• Urban Native people seeking renewal at a sweat lodge near Marden Creek
• Friends from the University of Guelph who have experimental, demonstration plots on this land

And others who have found that their experience of this land has been a crucial part of spiritual formation and the development of their social consciousness in broader issues of ecology.