Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

St. Aloysius Gonzaga was born the eldest son of the Marquis Ferdinand of Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, Prince of the Roman Empire, on 9 March 1568. At age eight, Aloysius was sent with his brother to spend two years at the court of Francesco de Medici in Florence, Italy. But his thoughts being already absorbed in matters spiritual, he took a vow of perpetual chastity and made a general confession with such contrition that he fainted at the confessor's feet. From Florence, he was sent to Mantua. Here, in an effort to control his quick temper and disposition to criticize others, he continued to impose a rigorous discipline upon himself and kept severe fasts. At 12, he received his First Communion from St. Charles Borromeo, a relative who was then Archbishop of Milan. 

Soon after, Aloysius decided to give up his position in favor of his brother and become religious. However, his father vehemently opposed him, and it took three years of persistent effort to obtain paternal consent. Meanwhile, he was sent for two years as a page of honor to the court of Philip II of Spain and then had to visit the Dukes and Princes of northern Italy, all of whom were urged to sway his determination, but in vain. Finally, in the fall of 1585, Aloysius, aged 17, was able to set out for Rome to enter the Jesuit novitiate. Aloysius had already developed his life of prayer and a continuous union with God while living in the world and had received the grace to make an hour's mental prayer a day without the slightest distraction, and at times, he prolonged it to five hours! His outstanding virtue now was obedience to his superiors, and this conformity to the will of God produced in him a marvelous peace of soul, which was always evident. "I am a twisted piece of iron, humbly embracing religion's guidance to seek rectitude and alignment!" These words epitomize his recognition of his own imperfections. However, resolutely, he embraced the motto: "I was born for greater things." 

In his 22nd year, he had a premonition of his approaching death and turned over his theological and spiritual notes to his rector as the only material things to which he was still attached. When a great famine broke out in Italy in 1590, followed by pestilence, the Jesuits opened an emergency hospital, and Aloysius solicited alms and tended the sick. But in March 1591, he himself took ill and succumbed on 21 June, after three months of patient suffering, aged hardly 23 and a Jesuit for only six years. St. Robert Bellarmine spent the whole of the last night by his side. He was canonized in 1726, and in 1729 declared the special protector and patron of youth, especially of young Catholic students.            

St. Aloysius Gonzaga, pray for us to be blessed with the grace to keep our hearts detached from the transitory things of this world.

Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,

Most High Servant,

Jesus, Mary, Joseph Ministry of Love (Blessed  and Saints and the Nine Choirs of Angels)