One of the patrons of youth, St Aloysius Gonzaga was an Italian Jesuit saint of the 16th century. Quite a few Jesuit colleges are named after him, including Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington and St Aloysius College, in Malta. Aloysius is the Latin form of his given name, Luigi, in English known as Louis. The Gonzaga name is well known in Italy. Aloysius Gonzaga was born at Castiglione near Mantua, Italy, in 1568 to a celebrated family of wealth and prestige. As the first born son of his father, Ferrante, and his mother, Marta, he was in line to inherit his father's title of Marquis. He grew up amid the violence and brutality of the Renaissance Italy and witnessed the murder of two of his brothers. In 1576, Aloysius' parents sent him to attend the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Francesco de Medici, in Florence. Later, accompanied by his parents, he traveled to Spain to join the court of Philip II in Madrid.
In Spain, Aloysius decided he wanted to join
the newly founded religious order, the Society of Jesus. His father resisted
his decision and there followed a struggle of wills that continued after his
return to Castiglione in 1584. But Aloysius eventually prevailed. Renouncing
his right to the title of Marquis and to the vast wealth he was destined to
inherit, he entered the Society of Jesus in Rome on November 25, 1585. During
his early studies in Rome, he would regularly go out into the streets of the
city to care for victims of the plague. He himself contracted the disease as a
result of his efforts for the suffering and died on June 21, 1591, at the age
of twenty-three, six years short of his ordination as a Jesuit priest.
He had received his First Communion from St. Charles
Borromeo. His spiritual director was Robert Bellarmine
who later was canonized and declared a doctor of the church. When Robert was
dying, he asked to be buried next to the grave of Aloysius. Today, they rest
next to each other in the church of St. Ignatius Loyola in Rome. 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. In Malta we have St. Aloysius College, High School equivalent school which is very well respected and admired for its level of education and discipline.
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