Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, Confessor
S. Aloisii Gonzagae Confessoris
Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, the young Jesuit who renounced a princely inheritance for the love of God and died nursing the plague-stricken, is honoured as the patron of Christian youth and a model of angelic purity.
Saint Aloysius was born in 1568 at Castiglione, in the north of Italy, the eldest son of the Marquis of Castiglione, and heir to a noble house and great estates. From his earliest years he was drawn to God, and while still a boy he resolved to give himself wholly to the divine service. He practised prayer and penance with a fervour beyond his years, and guarded the virtue of purity with such care that he became its very pattern.
Renouncing the world
Though destined by birth for the honours and pleasures of a great court — and he spent time at several of the courts of Europe — Aloysius set his heart on heaven alone. After a long struggle against the opposition of his father, who had other plans for his firstborn, he renounced his rank and his inheritance in favour of his brother and entered the Society of Jesus at Rome in 1585. Under the guidance of his confessor, Saint Robert Bellarmine, he advanced swiftly in holiness, tempering even his great austerities by obedience, and giving himself to study and prayer in preparation for the priesthood.
When a grievous plague struck Rome in 1591, Aloysius gave himself to the care of the sick, carrying the stricken to the hospital and serving them with his own hands. In this work of charity he contracted the disease himself, and after some months of patient suffering he died on the twenty-first of June, 1591, not yet twenty-three years of age, with the name of Jesus on his lips. Saint Robert Bellarmine, who had been his director, desired to be buried near him.
Patron of youth
The collect of his feast salutes God as the giver of heavenly gifts, who joined in this angelic youth a wondrous innocence of life with an equal spirit of penance, and prays that we who have not followed his innocence may at least imitate his penance. Saint Aloysius was canonised in 1726 and is venerated as the patron of young people and of students, and as a model of chastity. His memory calls the young in every age to give the first and best of their strength to God.
The Collect
O God, the giver of heavenly gifts, who in the angelic youth Aloysius didst join a wondrous innocence of life to an equal spirit of penance: grant, by his merits and prayers; that we who have not followed him in his innocence may imitate him in his penance.
Cæléstium dónorum distribútor, Deus, qui in angélico júvene Aloísio miram vitæ innocéntiam pari cum pœniténtia sociásti: ejus méritis et précibus concéde; ut, innocéntem non secúti, pœniténtem imitémur.
Patronage
He is the patron of Christian youth and of students, and is invoked for purity and for the relief of those suffering from epidemic disease.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar his feast is observed on 21 June as an obligatory memorial.
Common Questions
When is the feast of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga?
His feast is kept on 21 June in both the 1962 Roman Missal (Third Class) and the modern calendar (memorial).
Who was Saint Aloysius Gonzaga?
He was an Italian nobleman of the sixteenth century, heir to the marquisate of Castiglione, who renounced his inheritance to become a Jesuit. He died at the age of twenty-two after catching the plague while nursing the sick in Rome, and is honoured as a model of purity and the patron of youth.
Why is he the patron of young people?
Because of the holiness, purity, and generosity he showed from his earliest years, and the wholehearted way in which he gave his short life to God and to the service of the sick. The Church holds him up to the young as a friend and example of a life given to God in its very springtime.
See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.
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