St. Aloysius

ST. ALOYSIUS DE GONZAGA
Feast day : June 21
Died: 1591


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 lifefor 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. Hisfamily 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 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. St. Robert wrote the Life of St. Aloysius.

from Wikipedia
Aloysius Gonzaga, S.J., (Italian: Luigi Gonzaga, Spanish:Luis de Gonzaga; March 9, 1568 – June 21, 1591) was anItalian aristocrat who became a Jesuit seminarian and student at the Roman College. He died in Rome, at the service of people suffering from an epidemic. Beatified in 1605, he was canonized in 1726.

Early life
Gonzaga was born at his family's castle in Castiglione delle Stiviere, between Brescia and Mantova in northern Italy in what was then part of the Duchy of Mantua, a member of the illustrious House of Gonzaga. He was the oldest son of Ferrante Gonzaga (1544–1586), Marquis of Castiglione, and Marta Tana di Santena, daughter of a baron of the Piedmontese Della Rovere family....