June 21: Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, Jesuit, Patron Saint of Catholic Youth
Renounced all honors to follow Christ on the path of consecration
Everything the world desires—honor, wealth, nobility, glory, power—he had. Yet Aloysius (Louis) Gonzaga chose to go against the tide, abandoning all worldly security to stake his entire life on following Christ. Born into the noble Gonzaga family on March 9, 1568 as the eldest son of the Marquis of Castiglione, Aloysius had a future of comfort and distinction ahead of him. However, he preferred prayer and penance over weapons and armor.
To be educated according to his noble status, he was sent to the Medici court in Florence from September 1577 to November 1579 where he studied Latin and Italian. At the Florentine Sanctuary of the Annunziata, he took a vow of perpetual chastity. He was only nine years old but already had a clear vision of the values upon which he wanted to build his life.
Upon returning to Mantua, he devoted himself more to pious practices than to learning how to become heir to the marquisate. On July 22, 1580, he received his First Holy Communion from Saint Charles Borromeo. In early March 1582, he traveled with his younger brother Rodolfo to Madrid, where he was appointed page to Don Diego, son of Philip II and heir to the Spanish throne. In the Spanish capital, he continued his studies and decided to join the Society of Jesus.
When he returned to Mantua, he expressed to his father the desire to become a religious. He was met with a firm refusal. But Aloysius did not give up and patiently waited for the right moment. On November 2, 1585, he publicly renounced his hereditary title, which passed to his brother Rodolfo, along with a generous income his father had planned to grant him. Two days later, he left for Rome to join the Jesuits, where on November 25 he began his novitiate.
He had chosen the Society of Jesus for several reasons: the fervor of a recently founded institute, the vow to avoid seeking or accepting ecclesiastical honors unless ordered by the Pope, the presence of schools to help the youth and the missionary goal of combating heresies and converting the peoples of the Indies, Japan, and the Americas.
He wanted no privileges for himself and chose to live exactly like the other religious brothers. On November 25, 1587, he took the religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
Despite his fragile health and the recommendations of his superiors, who wanted to exempt him from caring for the sick, he insisted on helping at the Hospital of the Consolation near the Capitoline Hill. On the morning of March 3, 1591, while on his way to his shift, he saw a man stricken with the plague lying abandoned on the ground. Aware of the risk of infection, he lifted him onto his shoulders with difficulty, carried him to the hospital, washed him, tended to him with care and stayed with him the entire day. Only when his fellow brothers arrived to relieve him did he return to the college, where he went to bed with a high fever and the first clear signs of the illness. He faced death with serenity and passed away on June 20, 1591 at the age of only 23.
He was canonized in 1726 by Pope Benedict XIII, who three years later proclaimed him the patron saint of students. In 1926, Pope Pius XI declared him the patron of Catholic youth, and in 1991 Pope John Paul II named him patron saint of patients suffering from AIDS.