St. Aloysius Gonzaga

Their story

Aloysius Gonzaga was born in 1568 in northern Italy, the eldest son of a powerful marquis. His father planned for him a career as a soldier and courtier, and as a boy Aloysius was sent to serve at the courts of Florence and Madrid. But he was drawn to God from an early age, and he was repelled by the violence and immorality he saw at court. As a boy he made a promise to remain chaste, and he received his First Communion from St. Charles Borromeo. When Aloysius told his father he wanted to become a Jesuit, his father was furious and refused. For years the young man persisted. At last, at seventeen, he was allowed to give up his inheritance to his younger brother and enter the Society of Jesus in Rome. He was a serious and sometimes overly strict young man, and his spiritual director, St. Robert Bellarmine, helped him grow in balance and gentleness. In 1591 a plague broke out in Rome. Aloysius volunteered to care for the sick in a Jesuit hospital, carrying the dying in from the streets, washing and feeding them. He caught the disease himself and died on June 21, 1591, at the age of 23. He was canonized in 1726. He is a patron of young people and students, and because he died caring for victims of an epidemic, he is also invoked by people living with HIV/AIDS and those who care for them.