Today we remember a pretty young saint: Saint Aloysius Gonzaga. He was born on March 9, 1568 in the family castle of Castiglione delle Stivieri in Montua, Lombardy, Italy. He grew up in this castle. His father was a compulsive gambler. He was cousins with Saint Rudolph Acquaviva. From the age of four, he was trained as a soldier and courtier. He suffered from kidney disease, which he considered a blessing because he was bed-ridden with lots of time of prayer. While still a child, he taught catechism to poor boys. He received his First Communion from Saint Charles Borromeo. When he was 18 years old, he signed away his legal claim of his family's fortune to his brother and he became a Jesuit novice. He became a student of Saint Robert Bellarmine. During the plague outbreak in Rome in 1591, he helped the victims. He caught the disease and he died at age 23 on June 21, 1591. His relics are in the altar of Saint Ignatius Church in Rome. He was canonized on December 31, 1726.
He is the patron of: AIDS patients and care-givers, teenagers, and Jesuit students.
QUOTES
"There is no more evident sign that anyone is a saint and of the number of the elect, than to see him leading a good life and at the same time a prey to desolation, suffering, and trials."
"He who wishes to love God does not truly love Him if he has not an ardent and constant desire to suffer for His sake."
PRAYER
O Holy Mary, my Lady, into your blessed trust and safe keeping and into the depths of yur mercy, I commend my soul and body this day, every day of my life, and at the hour of my death. To you I entrust all my hopes and consolations, all my trials and miseries, my life and the end of my life. By your most holy intercession and by your merits, may all my actions be directed and disposed according to your will and the Will of your divine Son. Amen.
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