St. Aloysius de Gonzaga - Patron Saint of SLU

The story of St. Aloysius de Gonzaga started 435 years ago, in a town called Castiglione, delle Steviere in Italy. Around this time and place, a young prince was born to the Gonzaga family. A prince destined to be a great ruler, a man of innumerable riches and military strength. A nobleman envied by men and adored by women. For he was the son of the Marquis de Gonzaga, and his name was Aloysius.   Aloysius grew to be a boy with his entire life planned for him. He was to be a great prince and ruler of men and a great soldier, a general of armies and a conqueror of enemies. This was the life Marquis Gonzaga had planned for him. Aloysius displayed great amounts of daring, courage and cool-mindedness even in the face of danger.

However, there was another side to Aloysius' character. His mother was a pious woman who loved to pray and to think about God, and the passing joys of this earth meant little to her. It was she who taught the boy to love the things of the spirit and as he grew.

 When he received Jesus from Charles Borromeo, the Archbishop of Milan, in First Holy Communion, Aloysius knelt in adoration, making a vow from the depths of his heart that he would make God his first and last love and asking the Blessed Virgin to protect his innocence for life.

Jesus had suffered on the cross for the love of each man; so Aloysius wanted to suffer too, to show his love for Jesus. The prince made mortifications, trying not to take the most delicious food, avoiding wearing the most handsome clothes, and even putting bits of wood in his bed at night so as to have some pain to suffer. Any pleasure which his nature might want to enjoy, his spirit told him to ignore.

When Aloysius grew to his teens, the Marquis wanted the very best life for his son so he sent Aloysius and his younger brother to become pages in the court of King Philip II of Spain.

Aloysius reluctantly obeyed his father and became a royal page of Prince James, son of the king. Yet he still persisted with his mortifications and did not dress richly nor did he take any of the best food. He felt that he had to imitate the poverty of Jesus in a small way at least.

The prince wanted nothing more than to serve God and suffer as Jesus had suffered, so when he went back to Italy, he made up his mind to give up his royal title of prince and enter the Jesuit Order.

His father was outraged at the thought of his son, a Gonzaga - a royal prince, becoming a lowly priest and refused to allow Aloysius' decision. Yet with a determined will, Aloysius convinced his father that to become a Jesuit was the life for him.

So on November 25, 1585, Aloysius entered the Jesuit Order as a Novice. With high hopes of becoming a missionary and to work among poor pagans, he worked hard, settling down to a life of prayer and penance. He learned to do each one of his new duties well and everyday became more humble, more obedient, and more pure.

He was ready to be ordained a priest when an epidemic broke out in Rome in 1591. Hospitals were soon overflowing and people were dying in their homes and in the streets.

The Jesuit Fathers hurriedly opened a hospital of their own, and Aloysius went around the city in patched clothing begging for money to buy food for the sick patients. He, together with other seminarians, helped take care of the afflicted.

Eventually, because of direct contact with the sick, Aloysius caught the plague. For three months, the youth lay in a little white bed, while the fever burned inside him. He spent his remaining time on earth praying to God.

   On June 21, 1591, Aloysius died at the young age of 23. He was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII in 1726.

St. Aloysius de Gonzaga led a life of humility and deep devotion to God and to his fellow men. He was a fine example of courage. Even at a tender age, he denounced earthly pleasures and fame. He chose to suffer instead of living the life of that of a prince. He chose to serve instead of being served. And having done so, he found God.