St. Aloysius Gonzaga

St. Aloysius Gonzaga

 

St. Aloysius was born in Castiglione, Italy.  The first words St. Aloysius spoke were the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary.  He was destined for the military by his father (who was in service to Philip II), but by the age of 9 Aloysius had decided on a religious life, and made a vow of perpetual virginity.  To safeguard himself from possible temptation, he would keep his eyes persistently downcast in the presence of women.  St. Charles Borromeo gave him his first Holy Communion.  A kidney disease prevented St. Aloysius from a full social life for a while, so he spent his time in prayer and reading the lives of the saints.  Although he was appointed a page in Spain, St. Aloysius kept up his many devotions and austerities, and was quite resolved to become a Jesuit.  His family eventually moved back to Italy, where he taught catechism to the poor.  When he was 18, he joined the Jesuits, after finally breaking down his father, who had refused his entrance into the order.  He served in a hospital during the plague of 1587 in Milan, and died from it in 1591 at the age of 23, after receiving the last rites from St. Robert Bellarmine.  The last word he spoke was the Holy Name of Jesus.  

Pope Benedict XIII canonized Aloysius in 1726, and three years later declared him to be the patron of youth in the Catholic Church, an honor later confirmed by Pope Pius XI in 1926.  Gonzaga University in Spokane is the only Jesuit university in the world named after St. Aloysius.  His Feastday is June 21st.