Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga was an Italian Jesuit, the firstborn son of a family of marquises, who renounced his inheritance to serve God in the Society of Jesus. He died at the age of 23, worn out by his service to the sick during the plague in Rome, before he had been ordained a priest. The Church commemorates him on June 21 and venerates him as the patron of youth.

He was born on March 9, 1568, in Castiglione delle Stiviere near Mantua. His father, Marquis Ferrante Gonzaga, intended him for a military and courtly career, while his mother, Marta Tana, raised him in a living faith. As a boy he stayed in Florence, where, according to the bull of canonization, he made a vow of chastity to Mary. At the age of twelve he received his First Communion from Saint Charles Borromeo, who was then visiting the region.

In 1581 he went with his parents to Spain and lived at the court of King Philip II. There he resolved to join the Jesuits. His father opposed this for three years and sent his son from one court to another, hoping he would change his mind. Aloysius held firm. In 1585, at seventeen, he renounced his rights to the inheritance in favor of his younger brother Rodolfo and went to Rome, where he was received into the novitiate of the Society of Jesus.

In the order he took vows, received minor orders, and studied theology as a student of the Roman College. His spiritual director was Saint Robert Bellarmine. In the streets of Rome he taught the truths of the faith to children and the poor. After his father’s death he also reconciled his brother with the Duke of Mantua, putting an end to their hostility.

In 1591 Rome was struck by famine and plague. Aloysius, though in poor health himself, begged his superiors for permission to serve the sick. He handed out alms to the hungry in the streets, carried the sick on his own shoulders to the hospitals, washed them, and spoke to them of God. He caught the disease himself and, after several months of wasting illness, died during the night of June 21, 1591, at the age of 23. According to the bull of canonization, he had foretold the night of his death.

Such crowds of Romans came to his body that the church doors had to be closed. Paul V beatified him in 1605, and Benedict XIII canonized him on December 31, 1726, together with Saint Stanislaus Kostka. The same pope declared him patron of students in 1729, and in 1926 Pius XI confirmed him as patron of all Christian youth. His relics rest in the Church of Saint Ignatius in Rome.