[1] Pedro went to Italy as a page of Cardinal Alexander Farnese, and at Rome was admitted by Ignatius of Loyola as a member of the Society of Jesus on 18 September 1540, eight days before the approval of the order by Paul III.

Meanwhile, Ignatius was negotiating the creation of the German College, and during the autumn of 1552 he called on the talent and eloquence of the young professor of rhetoric at Palermo.

Ribadeneira amply fulfilled the expectations of his master and delivered the inaugural address amid the applause of an august assembly of prelates and Roman nobles.

His sojourn in the Low Countries was interrupted for five months (November 1558 to March 1559); this period he spent in London, having been summoned there on account of the sickness of Mary Tudor, Queen of England, which ended in her death.

He obeyed, but had been scarcely a year in his native land when he began to importune his general by letter to permit him to return to Italy.