Loyola University Chicago is a private co-educational religious-affiliated university established in Chicago in 1870 as Saint Ignatius College. It was founded by the Roman Catholic religious order of the Society of Jesus and bears the name of the Jesuit patron, Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Loyola is one of twenty-eight member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities and, with its current enrollment of more than 15,000 students, is one of the largest Jesuit Universities in the United States.